NASA to blast probe into moon

LOS ANGELES – NASA plans to crash a space probe into the moon in 2009 – a collision so violent it will be visible on Earth through a telescope, the space agency said Monday.

The moon crash, part of a larger mission that includes a lunar orbiter, is a quest for ice. Water is the key ingredient for supporting future human outposts on the moon, a goal of the Bush administration.

NASA scientists say the collision should excavate a hole about a third the size of a football field and hurl a plume of debris into space. After the crash of the space probe, the mother ship that released it will fly through the plume and look for traces of water ice or vapor – similar to NASA’s Deep Impact mission last July, which blasted into a comet.

The moon collision and orbiter will be the first of several lunar robotic projects before astronauts are sent to the moon, targeted for 2018. The entire mission will cost more than $600 million with the impactor project cost-capped at $80 million.

The mission is set to launch in October 2008, with a rocket that carries both the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and impactor. The orbiter will circle the moon for at least a year, mapping the surface, searching for water and scouting for potential future landing sites to send astronauts. The orbiter will pay particular attention to the south pole, which NASA considers a prime candidate for a future outpost.

The lunar spacecraft will target the south pole, too, releasing its SUV-size impactor probe in January 2009 on a suicide plunge at about 5,600 mph toward a frozen crater believed to contain hidden ice.

If ice is found, it could be melted and the water used to help make rocket fuel or oxygen.

“These resources can make (a) future human return to the moon and future human occupation of the moon much more cost-effective,” said Butler Hine, robotics deputy program manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Northern California, which is developing the impactor.