Bad Astronomy

Smack the Moon

NASA is planning to hold a press telecon on Monday about the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, its unmanned probe to the Moon due to launch in 2008. I’ll listen in, but the news is already out that the telecon will announce that the probe will have an impactor added to it.

My initial reaction is that this is a bad idea, given that the hardware for LRO is already being built, and adding something this complicated onto it this late in the game is asking for trouble. However, I will wait until the telecon to see what’s what.