NASA said it aimed to investigate the crater that formed when the wreckage of a SpaceX rocket was expected to crash into the moon in early March, calling the event “an exciting research opportunity.”
The rocket, which was deployed in 2015 to put a NASA satellite into orbit, has its second stage, or booster, afloat in the universe, the common fate of this type of space technology.
“On the current trajectory, the second stage is expected to hit the far side of the moon on March 4, 2022,” a NASA spokesman told AFP.
The impact of the 4-ton rocket block cannot be seen in real time from Earth, nor will NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which is currently orbiting the Moon, “watch the impact as it happens.” the spokeswoman said.
However, LRO can be used later to capture images for before and after comparison.
Finding the crater “will be challenging and could take weeks to months,” the spokesman said, adding that “this unique event presents an exciting research opportunity.”
Studying craters formed by spattering objects of known mass and velocity (which would travel 9,000 kilometers per hour), as well as material churned by impacts, could help advance lunar science, or the scientific study of the moon.
Spacecraft have deliberately crashed into the Moon before for scientific purposes, such as testing seismometers during the Apollo missions, but this is the first accidental collision to be detected.
Astronomer Bill Gray, creator of software used to determine the trajectories of asteroids and other objects, was the first to calculate the booster’s new collision course with the moon.
He believes that space junk should always point towards the moon if possible: “If it hits the moon, then we can actually learn something from it,” Gray said.
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