Font ResizeNASA scientists compared the impact of slamming their water-searching space craft into the moon as equal to an eyelash falling on the floor of a 747 airliner.
Unfortunately for the 25 people gathered in the freezing temperatures at Stansbury Park Observatory Complex, seeing the predicted 6-mile plume of debris was about as impossible as seeing the dust stirred up by that eyelash.
More frustrating was the fact that NASA didn't broadcast promised images from cameras aboard one of the spacecraft.
NASA says it successfully bulldozed the space craft and its booster rocket into the moon's south pole in a search for hidden ice.
First a 2.2-ton empty rocket hull smacked the moon's south pole at 5:31 a.m. Friday. Then four minutes later the camera-and-instrument laden space probe made its death plunge.
The smaller probe, called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite or LCROSS. had five cameras and four other scientific instruments and NASA had touted live photos on its web site. But those images didn't appear. NASA officials say they are sure the two probes crashed and are looking to see what happened to the pictures. Pictures were live until seconds before impact.
The space craft was searching for water molecules on the moon in hopes of being able to save money by launching future space missions from the moon's lower-gravity surface and stock up on water there instead of shipping it from Earth.
Many of the Salt
"I've always been into space exploration," said Lance Thorup of West Valley City, who says he wore out his first telescope at age 9. "I'm glad we're headed back in that direction. It seems to bring the world together better than just about anything else we do."
NASA should have results about the presence of water or hydrogen molecules on the moon in several weeks.
