Finding water on the Moon, or the possibility of water, falls into the category of Kind of Interesting. If you're old enough, you may remember that Venus was a cool, cloud covered planet where it rained incessantly. If we could only peek beneath those clouds, how lush and fascinating it would be. Imagine the botanical wonders. The surface temperature turned out to be roughly 860 °F, which some astronomers managed to call relatively cool, though a bit warm for long pants and sweatshirt. The clouds, which were the source of constant rain, turned out to be a mixture of sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid droplets. So, the original funding was to visit Earth's sister planet. Subsequent funding has been to discover why Venus is so completely different from the Earth. Well, not completely different, it's still a big planet between us and the Sun, it's just suffering from greenhouse effect. Is the Earth destined to become another Venus?
I went way out on a limb when NASA's LCROSS probe was a few hours away from slamming into the Cabeus crater on the Moon. I predicted they would discover the possibility of water on the moon, just as I predicted that the last Martian probe would discover the possibility of life on Mars. The December 2007 issue of Scientific American went with "Are We Living With Alien Cells?" featuring a greenish Ghost Busters-like monster cell on the cover. On the inside, the article became "Are aliens Among Us?" with the "a" in "aliens" for some reason not capitalized. These aliens turned out to be microbes with slightly different chemical properties than we currently understand. That's what most people mean by aliens, isn't it?
Here's the connection.
According to ars technica today, "disappointment about the lack of a dramatic plume of debris" in the LCROSS probe debacle has turned into a kind of elation since NASA's instruments managed nonetheless to obtain "significant amounts of data" that after four days worth of enforced analysis have finally produced an indication of "significant quantities of water" on the Moon. At least that's one possible interpretation, more than enough to prove me right. There is a possibility of water on the moon. But I'm sure there is no evidence whatsoever of consensus thinking at NASA, even if their jobs depend on it.
I went way out on a limb when NASA's LCROSS probe was a few hours away from slamming into the Cabeus crater on the Moon. I predicted they would discover the possibility of water on the moon, just as I predicted that the last Martian probe would discover the possibility of life on Mars. The December 2007 issue of Scientific American went with "Are We Living With Alien Cells?" featuring a greenish Ghost Busters-like monster cell on the cover. On the inside, the article became "Are aliens Among Us?" with the "a" in "aliens" for some reason not capitalized. These aliens turned out to be microbes with slightly different chemical properties than we currently understand. That's what most people mean by aliens, isn't it?
Here's the connection.
If biological determinism — the idea that life must arise under the proper conditions — is true, we might expect life to have emerged elsewhere in the solar system, particularly on Mars (which had liquid water on its surface early in its history).Obviously a NASA public relations piece. The fix was on, the funding fix. So, life on Mars, however one defines it, was inevitable. When it turns out that there is no life, we'll seek to determine why. Is Earth becoming another Mars?
According to ars technica today, "disappointment about the lack of a dramatic plume of debris" in the LCROSS probe debacle has turned into a kind of elation since NASA's instruments managed nonetheless to obtain "significant amounts of data" that after four days worth of enforced analysis have finally produced an indication of "significant quantities of water" on the Moon. At least that's one possible interpretation, more than enough to prove me right. There is a possibility of water on the moon. But I'm sure there is no evidence whatsoever of consensus thinking at NASA, even if their jobs depend on it.