I've got to admit, I recoil in horror at this current NASA idea, and here's why.
According to rock samples taken from the surface, the age of the moon has been estimated at 4 billion years. The moon isn't subject to erosion; footprints from the Apollo moon landings are still there 40 years later, as well as evidence for countless impacts from space over those billions of years. That's due to no atmosphere/air/storms, no surface water, no tectonic activity. The only things that affect any changes to the moon's surface are either impacts from meteorites (which are actually rare), human exploration, and the solar wind that pushes fine particles up and out of the gravitational pull of the moon. Evidence of this kind of ejected particle erosion has been confirmed by discovery of rocky meteorites found in Antarctica which have been chemically identified as having come from the surface of Mars.
That's the scope of the scientific knowledge that would be utterly destroyed by any a surface detonation in even a small area, and this is not a small area we're talking about; its actually somewhere between 350 and 500 metric tons being thrown over a VAST area. This isn't progress, it doesn't display any scientific finesse; it's the equivalent of taking a sledgehammer to archaeological artifacts to see what they're made of.
Irreplaceable scientific data that would be eradicated by this mission; the primary reason for the moon missions to go slowly, to preserve, catalog and analyse it. Howard Carter didn't blast his way into King Tut's tomb for similar reasons; likewise, I don't think we shouldn't blast lunar material six miles into space just to look for water.
In short, this is yet another example of government failing miserably at a task that could be done 100x better by a private institution.
I don't understand how everyone here seems to be pro-individual rights yet they seem to be willing to just brush this theft under the rug.
