ottery
New Member
Otterly delicious
Posts: 23
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Post by ottery on Oct 9, 2009 21:21:17 GMT -5
Bah, I hate how the local news keeps going on about bombing the moon. Get your information right! It's not a bomb! They are throwing junk at it, and there is a machine attached to the junk that will send back information when the junk hits the moon. It's less expensive than sending a drill or something to the moon to get information on whether there is water there or not.
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Post by Mantorok on Oct 9, 2009 21:26:15 GMT -5
"Where is the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!"
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Post by Admiral Lithp on Oct 9, 2009 21:39:52 GMT -5
I'm not sciencey enough to understand really, but isn't this a spectacularly inaccurate way of getting data about the surface, or just below the surface of the moon? Yeah, I don't really get it either, but I suppose astronomy is like 99.9% luck. I mean, how do they figure out where to send these probes & shit, anyway?
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Post by Khaine on Oct 10, 2009 1:32:21 GMT -5
So, on the day President Obama gets the Peace Prize the US declares war on the Selenites?
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Post by johninoz on Oct 10, 2009 2:35:02 GMT -5
Mantorok Sheer genius. Marry me.
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Post by Bluefinger on Oct 10, 2009 3:29:45 GMT -5
I'm not sciencey enough to understand really, but isn't this a spectacularly inaccurate way of getting data about the surface, or just below the surface of the moon? Actually, you'd be quite surprised at what they can detect in a massive cloud of debris. By impacting a two-tonne lump of metal at speeds of 2000 m/s or so into the moon, you can create a pretty massive hole in which a lot of debris (a lot of it being debris that comes from under the surface, away from the sight and analysis of most instruments) can then be ejected as a cloud of debris above the lunar surface. The sunlight then shines on the debris cloud, and then clever scientists can do things with spectrometry (basically, they analyse how light interacts with the material) in order to detect what sort of materials are within all the debris. In fact, it is quite accurate considering how crude it may seem. By colliding the lump of rocket into the moon like that, it not only allows them to eject plenty of material for the initial instrument to analyse (before it too collides with the moon), but the amount of material ejected is sufficient for it to be analysed by telescopes from the Earth. If we can detect the concentrations of elements within the Sun, something like this is sort of standard measuring practice. The only difference is this time, they get to crash something into something else in order to get the sample they need. What is Science without a little destructive experimentation?
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Post by RavynousHunter on Oct 10, 2009 16:57:39 GMT -5
Once again, crashing stuff into other stuff and watching the resulting explosion is the way science advances. I've never done this before, but you are going in my signature. That is how fucking awesome and full of truth and win the above quote is.
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Post by Deimos on Oct 11, 2009 20:16:26 GMT -5
I would have loved to be in that meeting.
Chairman : So how can we find water or ice on the moon man : Drilling Chairman : No, too easy Other guy : Molecular scanning? Chairman : No Other guy : You know what, lets blow the fuck out of it. Chairman : Awesome
Cant find a country to blow up, might as well to it to the moon
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Post by MaybeNever on Oct 11, 2009 23:45:10 GMT -5
In commemoration of being quotable and because it is almost perfectly fits, I offer this:
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Post by RavynousHunter on Oct 12, 2009 3:00:18 GMT -5
Plus, I bet the resulting crater would make a nifty spot for a lunar base...
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Post by Sigmaleph on Oct 12, 2009 18:53:04 GMT -5
I would have loved to be in that meeting. Chairman : So how can we find water or ice on the moon man : Drilling Chairman : No, too easy Other guy : Molecular scanning? Chairman : No Other guy : You know what, lets blow the fuck out of it. Chairman : Awesome Cant find a country to blow up, might as well to it to the moon
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Post by gotpwnt on Oct 13, 2009 19:52:31 GMT -5
We've done it, people! We've shown that moon who's boss. Unfortunately, it doesn't like being bombed. LOL
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Post by Vene on Oct 15, 2009 1:12:57 GMT -5
I would have loved to be in that meeting. Chairman : So how can we find water or ice on the moon man : Drilling Chairman : No, too easy Other guy : Molecular scanning? Chairman : No Other guy : You know what, lets blow the fuck out of it. Chairman : Awesome Cant find a country to blow up, might as well to it to the moon Molecular scanning is what they're going to be doing once they get the debris. I'd assume they're using mass spectrometry, spectrometry being something Bluefinger already addressed.
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Post by Dissident on Oct 15, 2009 12:39:42 GMT -5
Oh my, some of the comments on that "Scientific American" piece are outright inept and ludicrous. People shouldn't subscribe to scientific magazines if they haven't even completed High school education.
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Post by tygerarmy on Oct 15, 2009 19:52:11 GMT -5
The inhumans are unhappy about this act of war
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