Moon Smash Gives Flash

For many astronomers and scientists, NASA's frontal assault on the moon was a grave disappointment on Friday, 10-09-09. The Lunar Crater Remote Observation Sensing Sattelite (LCROSS) exploded near the Lunar South Pole as planned, but the large plume of bright debris they were expecting never materialized. All that was observed was a bright flash. Scientists were hoping to find ice at the bottom of the deep crater where the impact occurred: however, the absence of a plume suggests there is only rock and dust at the site.
Even in this slugglish economy, space exploration is very important. There are some who would argue that we have more important issues here on Earth than shooting old satelites at the moon. There will probably come a time when humans exhaust all available resources on the planet and it will be time to move on. The moon is just the first step in the process. Scientific research will not always go the way we anticipate but it must continue at all cost.