Victoria Friedensen, HQ program executive for LCROSS, weighs in on why the Moon is far from a case of "been there, done that..."

I think that sometimes we treat the Moon with a BTDT attitude -- you know, "been there, done that?" But really, have we really done that?

The Moon is our closest neighbor, but like many of us today, how well do we know this neighbor? Have we gone by, looked closely, and gotten to know this friendly presence better?

It's right there, look up: it's beautiful, changeable, but no mysteries right? There are a couple of really good mysteries there -- as well as some really good galactic history. Two questions intriguing planetary scientists today are why the gravity of the moon is uneven and why there is so much hydrogen at the lunar poles. These questions are important as the answers can inform our understanding of Earth's past, and our future. If we can understand the variations in gravity of the moon -- that was formed at the same time as Earth -- we can better understand the gravity variations of Earth (and maybe understand gravity a bit better -- very mysterious stuff, gravity). There are unexpected amounts of hydrogen at the lunar poles; one hypothesis is that it is from ancient cometary water ice that never evaporated having never been exposed to sunlight. If there is water on the moon, it could become a very important resource for future human activities there. The LRO and LCROSS missions will seek answers to both these mysteries.

As for galactic history? The moon is bombarded constantly and, because there is no "environment" that changes, everything stays there -- to be read closely. We're in the midst of a lunar research program that will provide us with new knowledge of how our solar system came to be, and how our own galaxy formed. This is pretty good stuff and it's right next door. Kind of like finding out that the kindly neighbor next door used to the Librarian of Congress and knows everything.

We're going back to the moon to spend some time. I believe we will find this celestial neighbor informative and fascinating. And in learning more from our neighbor we will learn more about our home and ourselves.