A half-moon glowed in the night sky last Tuesday as a sleek white rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A small spacecraft called Lunar Prospector was tucked in the rocket's nose. As the rocket rose, people cheered the perfect launch. "We're on our way!" cried one scientist. Soon Prospector broke free from the rocket and began to coast toward the shining moon.
For the first time since 1972, the U.S. space agency NASA has launched a mission to the moon. If all goes well, Prospector, which carries no astronauts, will spend one year orbiting the moon. It will map the deeply cratered surface. It will find out what the moon is made of and investigate the exciting chance that there is water there.
Says program scientist Joseph Boyce, who worked on NASA's 1972 moon trip: "It feels good to be going back."
Shooting For The Moon
Humans have always been fascinated by the moon. For centuries we have tracked the passage of time by watching the moon change shape--from new moon to crescent to full moon and back again. We have marveled at man-in-the-moon shadows that lunar cliffs cast over flat plains.
During the 1950s and '60s, the U.S. and the Soviet Union raced to get to the moon. Soviet rockets got there first, but the U.S. Apollo program landed the first human there: Neil Armstrong in 1969.
Americans were thrilled by the discoveries. By 1972, 12 astronauts had walked on the moon, and brought back 850 pounds of rocks. But the U.S. could no longer afford NASA's expensive missions.
For the next two decades, our only glimpses of the moon were from telescopes or spacecraft that flew by on their way to other planets. Less than a quarter of the moon has been mapped in detail.
What Will Prospector Find?
Though Prospector won't land on the moon, scientists compare its mission to Pathfinder's thrilling trip to Mars last summer. Both ships were built under NASA's new guidelines: "faster, cheaper, better." The missions are, says Boyce, "the start of the next golden age of exploration."
Prospector is less than half the weight of an average car. The spacecraft carries no computer or camera. But it is well equipped for its mission. From 60 miles above the moon, five instruments on the arms and antenna will put together the most complete picture ever of the moon.
Eventually, Prospector will crash-land on the lunar surface, joining the trash and equipment left behind by astronauts. By then, scientists should know a lot more about the moon.
Will People Live On The Moon?
Some astronomers believe that the moon holds as much as a billion tons of ice left long ago by crashing comets. Comets are big, dirty snowballs--mixtures of dust and ice. Most of the ice would have melted, but some may be trapped in areas where the sun doesn't shine.
Recently, scientists found more evidence for this theory. In 1994 the U.S. military launched the spacecraft Clementine to conduct tests near the moon. It spotted what might be a patch of ice at the moon's south pole.
If Prospector does find ice, it would look more like icy dirt. "Don't expect to see lunar penguins skating around on a lake!" says Boyce. But ice on the moon could provide water so that astronauts, and maybe ordinary citizens, could live there someday. Scientists would love to set up telescopes on the moon. The views would be outstanding.
An air supply would also be needed. But with the right equipment, people can live in strange places. "We have a year-round base in Antarctica," says Boyce. "Today's kids may end up living on the moon."
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