October 8, 2009

NASA’s Moon Explosion

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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Red alert: NASA is going to blow up the moon!

A lunar rocket is set to hit the moon’s south pole (no, they’re not blowing up the whole thing)  tomorrow morning, as part of the LCROSS mission to find water in the moon’s craters. According to National Geographic:

If abundant lunar water ice is found, it could someday be used to slake the thirst of moon colonizers and fuel their journeys deeper into space.

Star-gazers can watch at 4:30am Pacific Time with a standard telescope, and glimpse dusty debris or even—better yet—billowing water vapor (late-night nerd party, anyone?) For those on the East Coast, the NASA TV web site will capture the boom.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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