Testy Area 51

I've seen that on advertised on Amazon and that Steve, might be worth stealing off the internet :P

Nasa bombs the Moon creating new dimple... but where was the flash?

The surface of the Moon did get 'bombed' by Nasa today in its search for water ..... but the big live public drama people anticipated didn't quite happen.

Nasa were today furiously trying to deny the mission had been an anti-climax by stating their precision instruments had 'worked fine' and they'd received 'very promising data'.



But Nasa's director at the Ames Research Centre Michael Bicay admitted: 'We didn't see a big splashy plume like we wanted to see.'

Prior to impact some scientists had claimed that there was chance that it would be clear within an hour of the collision whether there was water on the Moon. Now Nasa say it will probably be two weeks before they will be certain about the answer.

Instruments confirmed that a large empty rocket hull barrelled into the moon at 11:31 GMT today, followed four minutes later by a probe with cameras taking pictures of the first crash.

Screens then went fuzzy and there were no immediate pictures of the crash or the six-mile plume of lunar dust that the mission was expected to produce.



For the millions which followed the crashes on the internet and at observatories across the world there was some degree of puzzlement.

Nasa officials said their instruments were working, but live photos of the actual crash were missing.

Three studies released last month found clear evidence of water on the moon, welcome and surprising news for further space exploration, since water can be turned into fuel.