LCROSS science briefing Friday

Cabeus (84.9°S, 324.5E) and it's permanent-endarkened interior, whose mysteries were plumbed by LCROSS, Oct. 9. Despite shallow reporting (long since moved on) of a "dud" after an attempt by NASA to "bomb" the Moon, rumors abound of a strange brew whiffed in the resulting plume, including a hint of Mercury. [JAXA/SELENE Terrain Camera].

NASA will hold a news conference Friday to talk about early science results from its successful moon impacting mission, the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). The satellite gained worldwide attention when it plunged into a crater near the moon's south pole on Oct. 9.

The briefing from NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will begin at 1700 UT, Friday, November 13, broadcast live on NASA TV and the agency's Web site.

For NASA-TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit HERE.

Panelists include Doug Cooke, associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist for Exploration Systems at NASA Headquarters, Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator from NASA-Ames Research Center, and Greg Delory, senior fellow, Space Sciences Laboratory and Center for Integrative Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley

For information about the LCROSS mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/lcross

Colaprete: In Demand

Tony Colaprete, principal investigator for the LCROSS mission is a busy man, this Wednesday. As we write Colaprete, along with LCROSS science co-investigators Jennifer Heldmann and Diane Wooden, are participating as this week's panel at the CSC/SETI Institute Colloquium lecture panel in Mountain View, California.

"The Lunar Crater Observation and Remote Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission will impact into the lunar polar region on October 9. The panelists will discuss the first results obtained from cameras and spectrometers aboard the shepherding spacecraft," and "pictures of the impact" gathered "around the world and in space by the Hubble Space Telescope. Will the LCROSS mission detect water in the lunar regolith? Did the mission work as planned? The panel will let us know."

And tonight, beginning at 8 PM Eastern time in the United States, Colaprete "will spend a few minutes discussing early results of the LCROSS mission," as this week's Lunar and Planetary Institute's MyMoon webcast.

"The rest of the conversation is up to you," and "you can begin by submitting questions for Tony at http://www.lpi.usra.edu/mymoon (click on the webcast poster at 8pm Eastern to join the webcast in progress.