Having spent 18 months probing the moon's surface and interior, Lunar Prospector is running out of fuel, and is expected to crash at the end of July. Rather than just let it go, however, NASA decided to give the satellite a final mission: to take aim at a crater near the moon's south pole and slam into it at 3,600 M.P.H.
Why would NASA do that? In a word, water. With water, the moon can be used as a way station for human space exploration. Without it, H2O has to be hauled into space at a cost of more than $10,000...
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