Right about now, NASA should be crashing part of their LCROSS orbiter (Lunar Crater Observation Sensing Satellite) into a moon crater in an effort to create a dust plume that the remaining parts of the satellite can analyze prior to also face planting itself on the surface. The objective will be to get a reading on whether or not ice exists just under the lunar crust. If so, it could make plans for a permanent manned lunar base feasible, and also would indicate that water is pretty common in the cosmos. Also, an indication that life may not be so uncommon. From a science angle this is huge. What we learn from this could forever alter the course of space exploration. In addition, it is a wonderful example of using something low tech (a ballistic projectile) to get high tech data in return.

However, the really cool aspect of this story is not the actual story at all. It is the conspiracy theories that the moon probe has cooked up from the fringes.

• There are stories circulating that previous secret missions have left artifacts on the moon that would be incriminating if other nations’ efforts to explore the moon uncovered them. So clearly we must destroy the evidence.
• Some are saying that this is an effort to bomb an alien base we’ve discovered on the moon, thus preventing an inevitable invasion.
• Many of these speculations hold that rather than the official story that we are crashing a washing machine sized rock into the moon, we are really using high explosives or even nuclear payloads. The worry being that this will spark an international incident, or even a war.
• There is a concern that this will destroy the moon’s ecosystem and/or cause harm to the humans and/or aliens that are working up there.
• Some are going so far as to postulate this is a sign of the End Times.

All this, from the same people who brought the news that the moon landings were faked in the first place. Although curiously, I’ve not seen where anyone is claiming the whole LCROSS satellite mission is being faked. For definitive coverage of this event, we take you now to our live news feed.