That's number 2 on my "list of things to do after taking over the world".

My first will be declaring war on lichtenstein and invading it with an army armed only with nerf guns.

Why the fuck are we bombing the moon? All that will do is give the Martians a warning and a chance to arm!

Also while a robotic drill will provide far more information and some very relevant information that will be lost here, this is much more cost-effective and simpler. I'd be concerned about what detection techniques they are using though because the articles says they only have 4 minutes to analyse the sample before the analyser crashes which is much shorter than one would normally like. In that time you could probably establish if there is water and what general state it is in but that is about it.

MSNBC has a countdown going right now until the bombing and a closeup of the moon. 30 minutes and counting.

[Edit] Watch it on NASA-TV. 10 minutes to go.

[Edit2] ...wtf? Everyone was worried about throwing its trajectory...magnetic field...the explosion was so small you couldn't see it with a close-up camera following just a few miles behind. The anchors are all complaining that they just wasted ten minutes of their life. JIP!

Obviously.

Nobody else saw that one coming? The Moon is fucking huge. It's not like oh shit we're dropping a 30,000lb bomb in your BACKYARD better step back a little.

Not to mention there's no atmosphere to speak of on the Moon. Much harder to propogate an explosion there than on Earth.

And I say this isn't stupid at all. In fact, the Moon might as well be humanity's stress ball on top of all its other uses. Worried about latent radiation from nuclear testing on Earth? Nuke the Moon! First person to make a giant smiley face wins a billion dollars!

I am in support of the "send the Moon crashing onto Mars" plan.

Yeah Martians, you can decimate entire cities with your plasma cannons and disintegrate people with but a thought? WELL WE CRASHED THE MOTHERFUCKING MOON ONTO YOUR PLANET MOTHERFUCKERS.

Seriously, nothing says interplanetary imperialism than throwing moons at other people.

Plus just knowing we could do it would be pretty freaking awesome.

Needs more dakka.

What the fuck are you talking about?

I'm saying the anchors and I think they should have sent a nuke along with just for the sake of the explosion. There was literally nothing to see, with half an hour of buildup.

This is what your link leads to:
http://data.tumblr.com/0KKrJEjPEcnp0cfjEOrVliPn_400.jpg

I also find it questionable that a rocket would get to the moon in a matter of minutes, when it supposedly takes astronauts days to get there.