| Lunar Probe Prepares to Get Smashed NASA proved it can still reach the moon with its latest pair of probes, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). After separating shortly after take-off, the two probes prepared for very different futures. LCROSS is currently in an elongated polar Earth orbit, taking pictures of the surface and beaming them back home. But on October 9, it will smash head-first into the moon. This is no idle whim. NASA plans to analyze the debris plumes kicked up by LCROSS for the presence of water, water vapor, and other materials. The information will be useful for any future missions to the moon, especially manned ones. Discovering water on or near the moon's surface, preferably in large quantities, would potentially make it easier to set up a permanent manned base on the moon, or perhaps even a lunar colony. Meanwhile, what is the fate of LRO? It is currently orbiting the moon with an eye to finding potential landing sites, “potential resources,†study the radiation in the lunar environment, and test out some of the advanced scientific instruments that have been created since NASA's last unmanned visit to the moon over a decade ago. As the Internet has also advanced considerably in that time, you can also check out a Twitter feed from NASA covering the probes' missions. Read more about this Kodak Takes Our Kodachrome Away Blame it on digital cameras if you must, but it had to happen sooner or later. Just in time for summer vacations, Kodak announced that it is discontinuing its Kodachrome color film, beloved of professional photographers since 1935. The film produced images so vivid that Paul Simon famously sang about them in one of his songs. As such, it was the film used by National Geographic photographers, and millions who grew up reading that magazine thrilled to the vivid way it brought the exotic closer to home. Writing about it for Wired, Jim Merithew observed that “Kodachrome's red was the hue that photographers using other films could only dream of.†Kodachrome could only be processed by a special Kodak lab; there is only one of these left, and it will accept rolls up until the end of next year. Kodak estimates that stores have enough supplies on their shelves to last until fall 2009 before they run out. While the basic laws of supply and demand have killed Kodachrome - Kodak said declining demand basically made it not worth their while to keep producing the film - there are now other films made by the same company that “offer features that current Kodachrome users would appreciate,†according to Kodak's press release. Read more about this Deep Lab for Dark Matter How do you find the most elusive substance in the universe? With a lab burrowed 4,850 feet deep into the earth. At least, that's what scientist hoped as they gathered at the Black Hills of South Dakota near an old gold mine for a groundbreaking of sorts. They're also hoping that lightning strikes twice: a portion of the gold mine named the Davis Cavern hosted Nobel Prize-winning physics research that demonstrated the existence of solar neutrinos. But the research scientists hope to do in these caverns will be even more difficult; they hope to prove the existence of dark matter. Many scientists believe that the galaxies could not have formed without dark matter, but very little is known about it. It is believed that most of it contains no atoms and does not interact with ordinary matter through electromagnetic forces. So how will scientists detect it? They're building a 300-kilogram tank of liquid xenon to capture the detection-defying particles. Xenon is three times as heavy as water, and must be isolated underground for the sake of the signal-to-noise ratio; such a tank placed above ground would be bombarded by cosmic radiation, causing the detector to record thousands of false positives. By detecting and studying dark matter, scientists believe we will gain greater insight into the Big Bang. Read more about this | 
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