-Caveat Lector- Spacecraft Hits Moon, No Dust Seen By PAUL RECER .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Lunar Prospector's violent collision with the moon on Saturday left no visible cloud of dust, but researchers still hope to find traces of water in a vapor plume possibly created by the impact. At least 20 observatory telescopes focused on the moon's south pole as the spacecraft, in its final task for science, dove toward a frozen crater and smashed itself around 5:52 a.m. EDT Saturday. Experts hoped the fire and violence of the collision, unseen from the Earth, would vaporize ice thought to exist in the shaded crater and send a wet plume, detectable by special instruments, spiraling into the lunar sky. Edwin S. Barker of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, a lead researcher in the project, said telescopes equipped with ultraviolet detectors took hours of data following the impact, searching for the chemical signature of water. ``It's really too early to draw any conclusions,'' Barker said. ``So far, we haven't seen anything that says water or anything else.'' Final results of the water search await analysis of the readings by the telescopes in Texas, California, Massachusetts and Hawaii, and by the Hubble Space Telescope, he said. What researchers are looking for is either water, H2O, or the hydroxyl radical, called OH, formed when sunlight splits a hydrogen atom away from a water molecule. Both OH and water have distinctive spectroscopic signatures when viewed with special telescope filters. The signature for water could be found quickly in the data, said Barker, but uncovering evidence of the hydroxyl radical could take weeks. The search for water is more than a scientific curiosity. Large stores of ice on the moon would make it much easier and cheaper to establish a base there, or to use the moon as a way station to more distant bodies. Water can be broken down chemically into hydrogen and oxygen that can propel a rocket or power generators. Oxygen also would provide a breathable atmosphere for lunar explorers. Lunar Prospector was scheduled to end its mission on Saturday, and scientists running the $63 million project decided smashing the craft into the moon in search for water was a fitting end. David Morse, a NASA spokesman at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said mission scientists ``were very happy and whooped it up a little'' when it became clear the craft had hit the moon. Prospector was launched Jan. 6, 1998, and spent about 18 months in lunar orbit, using five instruments to map the magnetic, chemical and gravitational character of the moon. One instrument received a signal for hydrogen, leading scientists to suggest there was frozen water in the deep, constantly shaded craters around the lunar poles. By some estimates, the could be as much as 300 million metric tons of ice in the frozen lunar soil. David B. Goldstein, a University of Texas researcher, was the first to suggest using Prospector as sort of a rocket-powered diving rod. He did calculations that showed if Prospector crashed into one of the frigid craters, heat from the impact could vaporize the ice and form a wet cloud visible from Earth. Although mission scientists believed there was only a 10 percent chance of success, the possibility of harvesting a final bit of science was worth the effort. Goldstein said Saturday that he also had hoped for a dust cloud, but none was seen by any of the 20 or so observatory telescopes that focused on the moon at the moment of impact. ``We didn't see any dust. It is a bit of a disappointment,'' he said. ``We know it crashed. We just don't know where exactly.'' Officials of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, or ALPO, encouraged amateur astronomers to focus telescopes on the moon and report any signs of Prospector's impact. Despite the lack of obvious evidence, officials said Lunar Prospector appeared to have followed the instructions from the ground to slow itself with an automatic rocket firing and then smash against the moon. The impact point was not visible from Earth, but NASA engineers believe that the craft was in line to hit the target crater. ``Everything went normally, so we have every reason to believe it made it to the impact site,'' said David Folta, the Goddard Space Flight Center engineer who gave the final guidance signals to Prospector. ``There is no reason to believe we didn't get to where we wanted to go.'' Folta said the spacecraft received the signals and was operating normally when it went over the lunar north pole and disappeared behind the moon where it was to ignite its rockets. Had the rocket firing failed, said Folta, the craft would have reappeared in orbit, still sending out radio signals. Instead, there was only silence. Barker said there is a possibility the spacecraft hit at such a shallow angle that it skipped, like a flat stone across a pond, before it came to rest. This would diminish the dust cloud, he said, but there could still be a water plume. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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