Questions tagged [lunar-landing]
Questions on the subject of missions to the Lunar surface - past, present, and future
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What would a candle flame look like in low gravity?
We know what the flame of a candle looks like on Earth in 1g and what it looks like in weightlessness. But do we have an idea of what it would look like in Lunar (0.166 g) or Martian (0.38 g) gravity? ...
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Why was Buzz Aldrin not Awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor? [closed]
According to the award's requirements, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor may be awarded to "any astronaut who, in the performance of his duties, has distinguished himself by exceptionally ...
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Using command module as a lander
Question: Why doesn't NASA or SpaceX use the command module as their lander, instead of having another spacecraft as the lander?
I was playing Kerbal Space Program the other day, and noticed how many ...
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Is SpaceX lunar mission only a flyby mission, or it is going to land on Moon too?
Is SpaceX lunar mission only a flyby mission, or it is going to land on Moon too?
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Mining lunar thorium for building nuclear rockets on the Moon
Has there been any research on what lunar in-situ processes would have to be developed to mine and process thorium to build nuclear thermal rockets on the Moon?
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Does the Artemis III mission have a backup plan if the astronauts are unable to ascend from the Moon?
For the unlikely scenario where the Artemis III astronauts having landed on the Moon press the ascent button and nothing happens, will NASA have a backup or rescue contingency plan?
If so, what ...
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For an Apollo Lunar Module Ascent Stage launch, what is the optimal profile of $\beta$ (or $\gamma$) vs time?
When Apollo astronauts departed the lunar surface in the Lunar Module's Ascent Stage, it appeared to rise vertically ($\beta$ = 0) for ~10 seconds and then begin the "tipover" (videos of Apollo 15, 16 ...
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How much modification would Dragon 2 or Red Dragon require to serve as a lunar lander?
How much would Dragon 2 or Red Dragon need to be changed to act as a lunar lander? What I mean is not just landing but also lifting off from the Moon's surface to a specified orbit to dock with ...
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Could the Lunar Rover jump start the Lunar Module in an emergency?
In Scott Manley's video Why Lunar Landers Had Jumper Cables For Emergencies he describes the "LOSS OF ED [Explosive Device] SUB-SYSTEM" procedure, which includes the use of a jumper cable called the "...
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How many different kinds of insulation film are wrapped around the Apollo Lunar Module?
In the image shown in the question Why is the Apollo LM landing gear covered with so much thermal isolation? (also shown below) it appears that the color of the film around the bottoms of the lander's ...
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Single Engine versus Multiple Engines for Moon Landing
Does it really make any huge difference in the amount of lunar dust disturbed or raised during a Moon landing while using a single-engine compared to using multiple engines?
I do not think there ...
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Where to look for newest images from Chang'e 3?
The tomorrow lunar eclipse is bound to look spectacular from the Moon - and as far as I know, Chang'e 3 is still fully operational, including its 3 high-definition stereo cameras. That means a chance ...
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Lunar Descent and Landing Simulation
I am trying to simulate lunar descent and landing as a part of my undergraduate project. For time being, I have included gravity turn guidance scheme and used these equations
Now, I can solve ...
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Could a nuclear thermal rocket take off from the surface of the Moon?
Could a nuclear thermal rocket take off from the surface of the Moon?
The application is a shuttle from LEO to the Lunar surface.
Fairly recent NASA plans include an NTR LEO to LLO shuttle, but use ...
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Apollo LM ascent procedure, computer controlled or manual?
How was the Apollo LM ascent launch procedure controlled? Was it manual, semi-automatic or fully automatic? By "launch procedure" I am talking about the pitch control for the LM. I believe there is no ...
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Chandrayaan-2; time taken to get to the Moon
Depicted above is the print version of the July 02, 2019 Times of India article Why the world keeps returning to Chandamama which nicely surveys the large number of missions to the Moon.
India is ...
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Why did NASA sent people to the Moon more than once? [duplicate]
Often, especially now with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, the question is asked: Why did we stop sending people to the moon. The answer is usually: because the USA had proved they ...
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With today's technology, how much would it cost to put a man on the Moon again? [closed]
Has there been any current estimates for the cost of putting a man on the moon, today? I'm curious how much the price has dropped with the improvement of technology, compared to the original moon ...
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Direct transfers to inclined lunar orbits?
I'm trying to find examples of direct earth–moon trajectories ending in inclined low lunar orbits. I've found a few classes, such as
those with plane changes between SOI encounter and capture ...
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Budgetary mission considerations for a disembodied pilot/crew? [closed]
It is not unusual in Science Fiction for a disembodied human to be on spaceship.
Either the brain is removed from the body; kept alive artificially and often connected to the ship directly. ...
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Going over the Apollo fuel numbers and I have many questions
I was reading through Apollo by the numbers and I noticed the LM descent to the moons surface consumed 17,414kg of fuel out of a total of 18,184kg leaving only 770kg of fuel.
But then in the very next ...
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Can we see the USA flag on the Moon from Earth? [duplicate]
Is it possible one day to see landing site flags on the Moon from Earth or from space without having to land using a telescope as technology progresses?
Highly Related: Were the Apollo lunar ...
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Intuitive machines IM-1 ("Odysseus") lunar lander: commercial sponsorship
Photographs including https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Intuitive_Machines%E2%80%99_Nova-C_lunar_lander_%28IM_00309%29_%28cropped%29.jpg appear to show this bearing a Sun ...
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When was the topography data for the Apollo 17 landing site gathered?
The presskit for Apollo 17, released one month before the mission, shows the exact topography of the landing site. The data used to re-construct that topography, when was it collected?
dorz
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What are SpaceX plans for Starship with respect to Moon landing and then takeoff?
Starship uses Raptor engines which in turn uses liquid methane as fuel. The idea for using methane as fuel being - methane can be produced on Mars from CO2 and H2O. And using the onsite produced ...
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SpaceX Lunar Mission when possibly will it take place in future?
As SpaceX has delayed the crewed Lunar Mission which was going to happen in 2018 and now as currently, BFR is in progress, and also as SpaceX has mentioned in the first half of 2019 it will conduct ...
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Where should a lunar polar ISRU mission land?
In situ resource utilization of water ice in eternally shadowed craters on the Moon's poles might provide water for rocket fuel and astronaut survivability cheaper compared to launching water from ...
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Plausible starting parameters for a Moon suicide burn
I just created a Modelica Model of a rocket landing in vacuum. Now I attempt to verify it against reality. However, I have a hard time to figure out some plausible initial parameters. Apollo 11's ...
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Lunar landing in cotton candy?
When spacecraft land on Earth, they use the atmosphere to slow down.
On the Moon there's no atmosphere, so spacecraft must instead use rockets to slow down from orbital velocity.
Would it be possible ...
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How does the economy of a direct launch (to the Moon) compare with two launches docking in orbit?
How much more efficient would it be to use a launcher big enough to go directly to the surface of the Moon like Apollo did, compared with using two launches with a lesser rocket, say one with the ...
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How do flags behave on the Moon?
I have seen many theories and question/answers on this site touching upon this subject but no focused question. So I would like to ask this as a two part question.
Is what we saw in the Lunar ...
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Lunar lander, apollo 11, start position
If i were to simulate a lunar module with: $x_0$, $\dot{x}_0$, $y_0$, $\dot{y}_0$. $x$ is horizontal position, and $y$ is vertical position. What would be appropriate values?
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HAKUTO-R Mission length after landing?
I was unable to find sources about what will happen to the current HAKUTO-R lunar lander after it lands in ± 4.5 months.
There are two possibilities coming to mind:
The lander won't survive the lunar ...
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What does Cees Bassa's Doppler plot of Chandrayaan 2 show?
Cees Bassa's tweet shows a plot of received frequency versus time, with the Doppler shift of the Moon's center of mass subtracted. For a lunar orbit the resulting plot would show sinusoidal-like ...
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Could dust kicked up from the Apollo landings reach Earth intact?
According to various sources (1,2, and 3) lunar landings kick up a lot of dust at very high speeds. Is it possible that some dust was able to get fast enough to escape the moon, fall towards Earth, ...
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As they were all qualified, how/why were the Apollo Astronauts chosen for their individual missions? [duplicate]
Why did some fly multiple Apollo missions, while others flew only once?
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Righting JAXA's SLIM Lunar lander using RCS
The SLIM lander was supposed to roll onto the side as part of the landing process but ended flamey end up. Which has impacted the ability of the vehicle to collect solar power, and probably other ...
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Was TTCA used during the Apollo 11 landing phase?
Neil selected P66, so he used the ROD switch to adjust the altitude rate (he could not use the TTCA throttle). My question is whether he used the X,Y axis translation feature of TTCA or not.
The ...
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Model multi-stage lunar transfer on GMAT?
I am new to GMAT, and I am wondering if it is possible to simulate a multi-stage lunar transfer on GMAT?
The mission sequence I am hoping to model is a low earth orbit, followed by a trans-lunar ...
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Why are the rovers finding the long Lunar night difficult to overcome?
Compared to Martian nights, Lunar nights are long and cold. This has posed a lot of challenges in the past.
What specific challenges does long duration night pose? What are the methods to over come? ...
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How did Chang'e-4 hover, rotate, and then descend so gracefully? (Video)
In this incredible video we can see Chang'e-4 in it's final approach and landing on the moon from the point of view of the spacecraft.
The view is horizontal as the spacecraft seems to stop and hover ...
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What does it (actually) mean when spacecraft are "intentionally crashed" on the moon?
This List of Artificial Objects on the Moon lists 21 objects as "intentionally crashed". Because of the moon's lumpy gravity due to sub-surface mass concentrations most low lunar orbits will be fairly ...
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Technical challenges to improving resolution of lunar orbit imaging by using solar UV light?
@Uwe's question and answer seem to illustrate that the resolution of surface-imaging spacecraft orbiting around the Moon has not dramatically improved over the decades, and that this is pretty-much ...
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Falcon 9 vs Apollo Landing: Key Differences?
So I'm struggling to model a Falcon 9 vertical landing.
And because Falcon 9 info is scarce, I'm looking for more public info sources---like the apollo missions.
The Apollos did basically vertical ...
user39728
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Why does the side of the LEM look almost black in this photo? Did that cause problems?
After reading this answer about the RTGs used on the Lunar surface, I added some of the images from the Wikipdia article Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package into this answer, where I noted that ...
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Moon Polar Days And Night
Moon's rotation axis from the orbit plane of earth is about 1.54° tilted. Just like earth because of tilt, do polar regions experience 6 months day and 6 months night?
If so, aren't these places ...
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Controlling suicide burn landing location in a python simulation?
I recently asked a question in stackoverflow about Simulation of suicide burn in openai-gym's LunarLander. Sadly most of my assumptions about suicide burn implementaion were wrong but the answer given ...
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How are coordinates and cardinal points defined on on Earth's Moon? [duplicate]
I came across this page - http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/alsjcoords.html that mentions the various landing coordinates of of NASA missions on the Earth's moon. The cordinates are given in the same way as ...
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Does China have the most aggressive moon exploration plan as of 2013?
China is launching a rover to the moon this year, with more launches and returning samples coming soon. They also plan to have humans on the moon within the next decade.
The Moon offers many ...
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What spacesuits did the Apollo astronauts wear on Earth in their training for the Moon?
Even on the Moon the Apollo spacesuits were so heavy and bulky that the Apollo astronauts couldn't move quite well in them, except in the Apollo 15-17 missions where they were improved. However on ...
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