Near the end of the article, they write, "The LCROSS mission - it stands for Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite - will launch on an Atlas V rocket together with another spacecraft, called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The orbiter will circle the Moon for at least a year searching for potential landing sites for astronauts when they return there in the next decade. It will also look for suitable materials that might support a colony."
Won't the lunar reconnaissance orbiter circling for a year be likely to pass through some of the debris field they expect to plume from the LCROSS impact? Is the moon's gravity so weak that that debris will clear out of the way of the passing orbiter? They might plan to orbit high up, but those objects set in motion will tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by another force and maybe some cantaloupe-sized bits of Moon will be floating out there...
I'm no astrophysicist, but this seems a little like the chance one takes when spitting into the wind.
