Dunedin company plays role in NASA moon crash

Friday, October 9, 2009

Post a comment | E-mail this story | Print

NASA animation of the lunar impact.

(CNN) -- NASA crashed a rocket and a satellite into the moon's surface on Friday morning, a $79 million mission that could determine if there is water on the moon.

And Dunedin-based Ocean Optics played a major role.

The company built a spectrometer used in the craft sent to the moon.

The spectrometer, nicknamed Alice, measures the characteristics of light. That will help scientist see exactly what the moon particles are made of.

NASA televised live images of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, as it crashed into a crater near the moon's south pole.

More Information

NASA officials said it appeared to be a "successful impact," although they could not immediately spot anticipated plumes of moon dust kicked up by the two crashes.

Minutes before its impact, the satellite guided a rocket into the Cabeus crater in an effort to kick up enough dust to help the LCROSS find whether there is any water in the moon's soil.

The Centaur upper-stage rocket impacted the moon shortly after 7:30 a.m., and the satellite followed it four minutes later.

The LCROSS carried those spectrometers, near-infrared cameras, a visible camera and a visible radiometer to help NASA scientists analyze the resulting plumes of dust -- more than 250 metric tons' worth -- for water vapor.

Ocean Optics president Rob Randelman was involved in the spectrometer project used on the NASA mission.

But immediate NASA images of the crash produced no sign of the plumes, which were expected to rise six kilometers from the moon's surface, said John Marmie, LCROSS deputy project manager.

"Everyone was like, 'What's happening here?' " Marmie told CNN. "But that doesn't mean we don't have good data there."

Observatories on Earth did confirm they saw plumes after the crashes, Marmie said.

The orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter watched and photographed the impacts. Meanwhile, hundreds of telescopes on Earth focused on the moon, hoping to catch a glimpse of two plumes.

The Cabeus crater lies in permanent shadow, making observations inside the crater difficult.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, who watched the event at a public event at the Newseum in Washington, said there was a lot of interest in the NASA mission.

"We had families ... literally coming in off the street" to watch, she said on NASA TV.

NASA had encouraged amateur astronomers to join the watch parties.

"We expect the debris plumes to be visible through midsized backyard telescopes -- 10 inches and larger," said Brian Day at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. Day is an amateur astronomer who is leading education and public outreach for the LCROSS mission.

Ames Research Center -- which led the mission -- hosted an all-night event, featuring music and food before broadcasting NASA's live transmission of the lunar impact.

Other science observatories and amateur astronomy clubs across the country hosted similar events.

Be in the Know with Bay News 9 Now!

Get news, weather, and traffic alerts delivered directly to your computer desktop, e-mail, or cell phone with Bay News 9 Now.

Subscribe for free!

The Holidays On Bay News 9

thanksgiving travel From Holiday lights to mall hours to military greetings and more, Bay News 9 has you covered. Go to our Holiday page for more information.