A rocket will crash into the moon. It'll leave way more than a scar.

If you don't know the French film, you've likely seen its iconic imagery: In the 1902 silent movie A Trip to the Moon, a rocket smashes into the eye of the Man in the Moon.

One hundred and twenty years later, life will painfully imitate art.

Bill Gray, who tracks objects in near-moon orbits for asteroid hunters in his spare...