It may be just about time for an interplanetary (or would this be intraplanetary) snowball fight. Let’s see if we can hit the broad side of the moon.
BOULDER, Colorado – A strikingly simple concept would provide efficient water provisions for human outposts/bases on the Moon. The idea is to repeatedly clobber our already crater-rich neighbor with tons of water ice—to establish an “anywhere, anytime” delivery system.
Not only could chucking a payload of water ice to the Moon help sustain an expeditionary crew there, the impact mimics—in experimental form—a comet strike. Therefore, it’s a double-whammy: A science mission wrapped within an exploration capability test mission.
Plus, it would be extremely cool. We’ll want to mount a camera and transmitter face-down (if possible) on that chunk of ice — the moon-slam video would probably become a popular screen-saver.
But seriously, this is an excellent idea. My only question is why they’re talking about using rockets for this thing, when they could be using this.