NASA wants to crash into moon

NASA plans to smash a probe into the moon's south pole in a hunt for water. A lunar impactor will hitch a ride on the 2008 launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. A bevy of water would make the polar region ideal for a lunar base because it could be used to make drinking water, breathing air and rocket propellant (a huge money-saver for human missions because it means that much less cargo to launch, at $10,000 a pound, off of the Earth).

The mission picked is called Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or L-Cross for short. The rocket's upper stage, the mass of an SUV, will dive bomb the L-Cross into the south pole. It will smash into the surface, making a crater 16 feet deep and about 100 feet wide.

The impact will send a plume of debris, containing material that was hidden beneath the surface, between 30 and 35 miles in the air. The spacecraft will have a follow-on measuring satellite that will fly through the plume to determine what's in the debris. That craft will then make its own dive, creating a second crater.

Update: Check out a NASA-generated animation of the launch and mission here.