NASA Invites the Public to Guess When Their Space Craft Will Crash into the Moon

Want a commemorative certificate of NASA’s LADEE (lunar atmosphere and dust environment explorer)? All you have to do is be among the lucky to guess when the space craft will collide into the surface of the moon. It won’t be taking very long either. NASA launched the small probe, which was made in Virginia, on September 6 and it has been circling the moon for several months since reaching the moon’s orbit. By their own original estimates, the probe is expected to crash into moon by April 21. However, the probe’s fuel is almost spent and as it draws closer to the surface of the moon, a host of other factors may make the probe crash into the surface much sooner.

Those eager to take a stab at guessing the correct date of the crash can do so at socialforms.nasa.gov/ladee. It’s free and you have a much better chance of winning the contest than you do of picking this week’s (or any week’s) Lotto Max numbers. The purpose of LADEE was to collect information on the moon’s dust and its atmosphere which is considered to be highly rarefied or compressed. As LADEE draws closer to the moon, it is picking up additional data which is considered to be valuable above and beyond its original mission. As per NASA, when LADEE lands on the moon, it isn’t going to be pretty. It is fully expected the explorer will smash and get mangled up with multiple parts breaking off.

The space craft began its journey from Wallop Island’s “Wallops Flight Facility”. The rocket booster was believed to have been witnessed by millions of people as it lit up the night sky with a fiery trail. The rocket booster was made by the Orbital Sciences from Northern Virginia. Orbital Sciences made the rocket for the US Air Force.

Source:

NASA: Guess when our spacecraft will crash into the moon