Hi folks,
Several people have gotten astrometry for the LCROSS mission
over the last month, and the data showed that it wasn't going
to hit the moon after all: the miss distance was about 16000
km. However, it must have maneuvered on 22 July, because we
now have a lunar impact solution, showing that LCROSS will hit
somewhere in the southern hemisphere of the moon:
http://home.gwi.net/~pluto/mpecs/lcross.htm
plus a graphic showing the impact area (on top of a map of
Antarctica, because I lacked one for the Moon's southern hemisphere...
still gives you a rough idea as to what's going on, though)
http://home.gwi.net/~pluto/mpecs/lcross.png
Load up the data from the above page into Find_Orb, turn on
all perturbers, and set an epoch of October 9.5 (time of impact),
and you should be able to get the nominal impact prediction.
Thanks to 2008 TC3, we have good data for checking terrestrial
impact solutions; SL-9 provided test data for Jovian impacts; and
now, thanks to LCROSS, we'll be able to test lunar solutions, too.
-- Bill