Comet War. The Earth Strikes Back!

Artist view of LCROSS stage separation

At 5:30 am MDT, Terran Space Forces tested a new weapon in the Interplanetary War against the evil Comet Realm. The spent Centaur stage of the LCROSS system impacted into a crater near the Moon's south pole, followed a few minutes later by the crash of the observation probe that accompanied it. NASA telescopes and observers around the world are scanning the area to analyze the debris cloud. Of course, most of us slept through it, unaware of the bold stroke mankind prepares in its effort to thwart the enemy's plans.

Speculation abounds over the mission of the LCROSS system.

A leading critic of the administration has panned the effort as a mega-dollar boondoggle. "We already know how to smash things. Our military should at least have tried this years before against one of the enemy's impactors. All we've proven is we know we can hit the side of a barn."

Target: Cabeus Crater

Some speculate, however, that this was more than a test. NASA has speculated for some time that there could be deposits of water ice located at the moon's poles were there are permanent crater shadows. So far, only Dr. Bernhard of the Asteroid War Institute has ever put forth the idea that the enemy had actually established a hidden outpost on the Moon. If true, this mission would be Earth's fist counterattack against an enemy that has been at war with Earth since before recorded history.

Apollo 14 third stage impact site

The development of this mission stems from the accidental bounty of information gathered from the Apollo program. After seismic sensors were placed by the astronauts of Apollo 12, the third stage of Apollo 14 crashed into a desolate empty plain on the Moon's surface. Sensor data led NASA engineers to believe that a fast moving empty stage could cause sever devastation to a region around the impact site, even without an explosive warhead.

Of course, there are still doubters out there. This reporter has even heard a relatively unknown theory that this was a mere science experiment designed to look for traces of water in the resultant debris cloud. Here at the Space Rubble Command Bunker, we'll place that one right with the Flat Moon believers.

Mark Daymont,
Space Center Educator
From his blog: http://spacerubble.blogspot.com

Astronomy News for the Gifted Child, Those Who Think They are Gifted, and The Rest of Us :)

The Spitzer Infared telescope in many way has outperformed the Hubble telescope revealing a totally "unseen" universe in infared light including a monsterous new ring around Saturn!!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer-20091006.html article
http://video.ap.org/?f=AP&pid=XK1plEN3LGzIhMzdgmS3H22fGtqn0tOr video


AND.....

A REALISTIC FREE SPACE SIMULATION ONLINE GAME FROM NASA....RECREATES A SPACE WALK MISSION TO REPAIR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/3d_resources/station_spacewalk_game.html




Sheila Keller-Powell
Teacher
Space Center

Thoughts From My Long Walk Home.

Hello Troops,
I enjoyed by walk home this evening. The temperature was perfect in every way for someone raised on the frontier of South Dakota. The setting sun cast long shadows of trees and houses and the air carried that delicious sent of multiple patio barbecues cooking up half a ton of beef. My mouth was watering like Niagara Falls by the time I got home. I was starving for beef and what did I get? Well, not much when you're trying to count calories.

I sit at my desk and watch my teen age staff eat everything from 5 Variety Pizza (named 5 variety because of the five different types of fat and grease dripping from the edges and pooling in the center) and Gandolphos signature sandwich, The Cardiologist's Delight Its a lovely stacked sandwich seeping with grease, meat, eggs, and a leaf of green lettuce to make you think your getting something nutritious. Oh, I almost forgot the ten pound take away they each order from Sumo Express during the Overnight Camps on Fridays. We're talking rice bathed in soy sauce, deep fat fried Gut Plow Chicken , General 3 Chin Beef, and Sweet and Sour Sow Belly. They distract me with their chomping and chewing while I'm trying to do an honest day's work for an honest day's half pay (you know us teachers, always feeling overworked and underpayed). The smells fill my nostrils and put my stomach in starvation's throws. I want to cry out "Enough I can't take it anymore"
They fill their faces with 9000 calories of completely non nutritious food completely lacking in fiber and antioxidants while I nibble like a rabbit on carrots. Yes, I sit there cruching away with my bag of little mini carrots. They know not to offer me anything. I don't need the calories and the indigestion........ oh wow, it would be like being hung, drawn and quartered.

There was a time when I ate like that. I was growing up. Everything I ate went into the growing up. But there came a time when I stopped growing. The calories had to go somewhere and I'm sad to say they found a place. So, the moral of the story is simple. You younglings, enjoy your growing up years when you can eat almost anything and not gain one pound. Those days will come to an end. When that day comes, you'll be forced to drastically reduce your calorie intake or work out several hours per day. That's hard to do when you work for a living like most of us.

So, the sun is setting. I'm home from my long walk, drenched in saliva from smelling the smells of backyard barbecues. I'm preparing to eat my Low Sodium Progresso Light Chicken Noodle Soup with a side of steamed veggies (a must so I get my fiber) and perhaps, if I'm a good boy, I may get to nibble on a few more carrots. Now, if I'm a really good boy I may get to have two tablespoons of hot air popped corn, sprayed with that fake calorieless oil, colored to look like butter's distant cousin. The rest of the night I'll sit in my easy chair chewing on a shoe trying to satisfy that craving I have for beef.

I'm done.

Mr. Williamson