LPOD: 'a wetter hole' for LCROSS

Cabeus: On initial examination, a section of earth-bound radar maps of the far southern hemisphere of the Moon, from Goldstone or Arecebo, shows the target zone for LCROSS, Oct. 9. Mission planners at NASA Ames have changed course from Cabeus A to Cabeus "proper" and are sticking with the choice of a target at a surprisingly higher latitude than LCROSS fans had long expected. Their reason for the choice is to make observations from Earth of the resulting plume easier (and for a longer period of time in the 100 seconds after the impacts) and recent verification by LRO instruments of "the strongest signature for hydrogen anywhere on the Moon" as originally mapped by the neutron spectrograph on-board Lunar Prospector in 1998. [Charles Wood, Lunar Picture of the Day (LPOD), via NASA-LCROSS Observation Campaign]

When Charles Wood lends his noted expertise to any earth-bound lunar observation exercise, particularly when he devotes a daily update to his prestigious Lunar Picture of the Day (LPOD) website to the subject area, then what is known about the target in question (and what we think we know) are covered, definitively.

"Nine days from now the Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will impact the Moon, aiming at a new target. On September 11 NASA announced that the site selected in the attempt for a positive identification of water would be a small crater on the rim of Cabeus A, informally labelled A1. But although "A1" usually means "the very best", that target seemed to not be the best and LPOD recommended that a larger crater with a higher chance of success be targeted. Now NASA has just announced that they have changed the LCROSS target, not to the LPOD recommended Cabeus B but to Cabeus itself. This is a great improvement, made in response to new topographic data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and continuing analysis of existing Kaguya, Chandrayaan-1 and Lunar Prospector data..."

Read the Sept. 30 LPOD, HERE.

LRO LOLA shows extraordinary promise

First Light from the Lunar Orbiting Laser Altimeter (LOLA), flying on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), even before 'first light' had been gathering an incredible amount of data from the low point of its commissioning orbit over the lunar South Pole. This served the dual purpose, along with other experiments aboard LRO, of helping flight managers at Aims Research Center make their decision in favor of Cabeus A, northwest of the lunar South Pole, as what is likely to be the lower latitude final impact site of the LCROSS impactor. The Space Visualization Studio at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has already made incredible 3-D mpg2 and mpg4 movies available for download, well worth their size, along with a variety of stills. Now, only a week after the final maneuver that put LRO into its initial mapping orbit, the LRO is more than delivering on its promise of being the definitive lunar science mission we've been waiting for since first proposed in 2004.

Selenology Today on LCROSS Impact

The GLR Group has released a Special Bulletin or Selenology Today spotlighting the LCROSS Impact and it's selected target on the morning of October 9. The Adobe Reader file of this special issue can be downloaded HERE.