LCROSS Anecdote

About two years ago, I was completing an Aerospace Project Management Certificate course. The Risk Management module was taught by a gentleman (in the purest and best sense of the term) named Steve Carman. His regular 'day job' was being Northrop Grumman's Program Manager for the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) program.

As part of the course we discussed potential risks (and opportunities!) he was dealing with in delivering the LCROSS to NASA. He described the LCROSS mission to us and the question arose (I'm not saying WHO asked it):

What if the impact indicates there was water at the Lunar pole...until we blew it to smittereens?

The answer was pretty staightforward.: It was a calculated and accepted risk that NASA was willing to take [;-)