Questions tagged [the-moon]
Questions about Earth's Moon. Also for questions about spacecraft, manned missions, potential missions, etc. related to Earth's Moon.
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What will the live video and audio quality be like when astronauts next set foot on the moon?
What will the live video and audio quality be like when we watch an Artemis crewmember set foot on the moon?
The quality of the original Apollo footage from the 1960's is terrible by today's standards....
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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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Sub Lunar Mining
What mineable Lunar mineral deposits are valuable enough to offset mission costs. I have read perhaps cobalt, titanium, lithium, helium and maybe obsidian?
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Could lunar gate components be 3D printed and assembled in Low Lunar Orbit
Could Lunar Gateway Components be 3D Printed and assembled in a low level lunar orbiting space station and then be handled by space or sky crane type equipment?
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Moon Suit to be used for the Artemis III mission?
The Moon landing mission Artemis III is scheduled for launch in 2025. It will be the first Lunar crewed mission after Apollo.
What is the development state of the moon suit to be used for moonwalks ...
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Gravitational field of the Moon and Earth
Is there any method to find a point or plane in space where the gravitational field of the Moon and Earth are the same?
And if so, what happens to a spacecraft if it passes through that point or ...
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Historical Moon’s True Anomaly Numbers
What are moon’s true anomaly angles for new moons in year 1994? Cannot find historical true anomaly numbers on the internet.
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Is crater counting accurate for relative dating between celestial bodies?
This Planetary Society article explains how crater density per unit area on the lunar surface helps identify what regions are older/younger than others. It also mentions that this chronology can be ...
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Could we launch from the moon to another planetary body? [closed]
Would it be possible with currently rocket technology or technology towards the end of its development (ex. SLS, Starship, New Glenn, etc.) to launch from the moon. Of course, we would send down a ...
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Can we launch from the moon?
Would it be possible with currently rocket technology or technology towards the end of its development (ex. SLS, Starship, New Glenn, etc.) to launch from the moon. Of course, we would send down a ...
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Will a watermelon decompose on the Moon?
If someone placed a watermelon or any other type of fruit on the Moon, will it decompose?
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Why doesn't NASA fly its rockets on suborbital trajectories to the Moon?
After trying it out in Kerbal Space Program for a while, I was wondering why NASA doesn't fly on suborbital trajectories to the Moon. When I tested this idea in Kerbal Space Program I found out that ...
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Why is the LROC lunar data not showing farside of the moon?
This data does not include the far side, why not?
e.g I want TiO2 on the far side:
https://quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/layers?extent=-90,-28.758929,90,28.758929&proj=10&showGraticule=true&layers=...
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Antenna wrap material suitable for lunar & cis-lunar environment
I am looking for a wrap (station) antenna for a transceiver (in space/lunar)
Not all materials are suitable for the space environment. Does anyone know what wrap antenna materials I can use?
I have ...
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Is the impact of Chang’e 5-T1 rocket stage on the Moon's far side on March 4th likely to launch any debris into Moon or Earth orbit?
It is predicted that the Chang’e 5-T1 rocket stage will impact the Moon's far side on March 4th. The stage apparently weighs about 4 tonnes and will impact at 2.5 km/s at a shallow angle.
There's ...
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Which spacecraft have entered lunar orbit through L1?
I'm examining entering lunar orbit through the Earth-Moon L1 point with low-thrust propulsion. As part of this, I'm interested in all examples of spacecraft (both actually flown and ones that didn't ...
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Are there publicly available ephemerides for any Moon-orbiting satellites?
I am currently working on expanding an orbital propagator to cover satellites that do not orbit Earth. For starters, I am trying to expand it to Moon-orbiting satellites. I have managed to reconstruct ...
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How can you get nitrogen and carbon enough to make air (after adding oxygen and reacting the carbon with oxygen to form carbon dioxide) on the moon?
I'm working on a moon base for a project and I need to make air. I know that you can get oxygen and hydrogen by electrolysing water which is present in abundance on the moon. I need to mix nitrogen, ...
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How did this upper stage end up on a collision course with the moon?
The upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket that launched the DSCOVR spacecraft is expected to accidentally crash into the moon soon.
How did it get into this position? I found answers here that say it was,...
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Apollo 11 throttle telemetry: what is this value?
I cannot find any clue in AGC SW about the value in last column of pages 15-23 of "Apollo 11 LM-5 computer words" document:
I think it reads:
...
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BBC: "In 2009 Prof McDowell & other astronomers performed an experiment in which a similar-sized rocket was crashed into the Moon." Really? Which one?
The line following the title of BBC's Elon Musk SpaceX rocket on collision course with moon reads:
A rocket launched by Elon Musk's space exploration company is on course to crash into the Moon and ...
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Delta-v to hit the moon: is reaching Lunar L1 enough?
Lot of questions involve shooting things into the Sun. But there are no aliens on the Sun: they are on the Moon. I want to drop things on them, but since there's lot of them, I can just drop a ...
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How to make diamagnetic lunar simulant that would "float" in a strong enough magnetic field? (for China's 60 cm high field simulator)
Live Science's China builds 'artificial moon' for gravity experiment says:
Chinese scientists have built an "artificial moon" research facility that will enable them to simulate low-gravity ...
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How long would it have taken to launch an Apollo contingency flight?
How long would it have taken to launch an Apollo contingency flight, if, for example, the lunar lander couldn't have got back up to orbit? Could the lander have held three astronauts?
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Fuel profile for Apollo 11
I downloaded a dozen of NASA documents about post-flight analysis of Apollo 11 mission, but I cannot find a table or a plot of fuel usage and remains;
Some of the documents which I found:
http://www....
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Why did a solar eclipse of the sun as seen from Apollo 11 appear to have an elliptical corona?
When asked to recount an experience from the Apollo program, Neil Armstrong stated:
[My] most indelible memory was approaching the moon and flying through
the moon shadows so that the moon was ...
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Who is going to the Moon in 2022? How many planned missions to land something there?
How many planned missions are there that plan to land something on the Moon in 2022?
Secured access to launch necessary to count, no washing-machine with bottle-rocket missions.
Please include a link ...
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Where are the meteorite remnants related to the craters they've produced on the moon?
On Earth, in every crater there's usually at least some remnant of a meteorite. But with all the craters on the Moon, where are the meteorites in the middle of them?
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Approximate size of the "hut" object observed from the Yutu-2 lunar rover?
News sources (for example, the Independent, the South China Morning Post, RT, and Newsweek) have reported recently on the observation from the Yutu-2 lunar rover of a "hut" object or "...
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Time-scale for investigation of the "hut" object observed from the Yutu-2 lunar rover
According to Adam Smith writing in the Independent about the object that was recently observed in a photo taken from the Yutu-2 lunar rover:
(t)he strange cube was spotted on the horizon around 80 ...
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Do reversible proton-exchange membrane hydrolizer/fuel cells exist? Have they been incorporated into a “Hydrogen Battery”?
Solar power on the Moon suffers from the month-long Lunar rotation which necessitates enough energy storage to last through the 2 week Lunar night.
An alternative to battery storage would be a closed-...
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Projecting shadows, or even a movie, on the moon
Would there be a way to project shadows, or even a short movie on the moon, i.e. using the moon as a cinema screen and the sun as a projector?
To be more precise, if a cubesat was launched towards the ...
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If we pick any point on the moon (except possibly the poles), is the sun visible for 13.66 days, and then not visible for 13.66 days?
The moon is tidally locked to the earth. The moon's orbital period is 27.32 days.
Does that mean that if we pick any point on the moon (except possibly the poles), the sun should be visible for 13....
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Is lunar exploration going to need a whole heck of a lot of RTGs? If so, have they started firing up the RTG-making reactors yet?
The November 16, 2021 Northrop Grumman Press Release Highly specialized team to design vehicle for sustainable lunar surface mobility operations begins
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC), is ...
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Are valleys a good alternative to caves for radiation shielding?
Lava tube systems and caves have been discussed a lot when it comes to establishing a base on the Moon or Mars in order to protect it from the continuous exposure to lethal radiation, as well as ...
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Was Chandrayaan-1 recovered (tracked) only that one time in 2016, or is someone still keeping an eye on it from time to time?
Has there ever been probability of conjunction between spacecrafts in Lunar orbit? describes a recent maneuver of two spacecraft in orbit around the moon to avoid a potential collision:
Apparently ...
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What kind of rocket design would be used for Lunar/Mars E2E travel when colonized?
If/When Mars or the moon are colonized, transport will be needed between bases. Over long distances, rovers would be too slow and traditional aircraft would not work well in thin to non existent ...
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Why did Luna 1 enter a heliocentric orbit?
The way I understood it (please correct me if I'm wrong), the easiest (least energy) way to reach the Moon it to put the spacecraft into a highly elliptic geocentric orbit whose apogee reaches the ...
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Official source discussing the stress that Lunokhod operators were experiencing?
I came across this document mentioning the high stress that the Lunokhod operators experienced when teleoperating the rovers back in the 1970s. There is a mention that driving Lunakhod 2 was ...
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Are changing regolith properties under different thermal conditions a concern for the VIPER rover?
NASA's VIPER mission will send a rover to the lunar south pole, which will drive on sunlit terrain and in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs), which are among the coldest places in our solar system.
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What is the deepest part of the moon on the near side?
Per title, I must emphasize that it shall be on the near side. Antoniadi (lunar crater) and Aitken basin are all on the far side. Preferrably it is also wide and large like the Oceanus Procellarum...
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What is an "octet" in the context of NASA's LunaNET Interoperability Standard? ("internet on the Moon")
The PDF Draft LunaNet Interoperability Specification, LN-IS Baseline V001 September 2, 2021 (found at https://esc.gsfc.nasa.gov/projects/TEMPO?tab=lunanet) has found its way to the popular press.
4.2 ...
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Were there backup routes planned for the Apollo LRV?
I just finished reading "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin, an amazing read. For the missions involving the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV, Apollo 15-17), there are some mentions of astronauts ...
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Ultrasonic vibrations to clean solar cells?
Could ultrasonic vibrations propagated into the solar cells be used to dislodge dust in environments like the surface of Mars or the moon?
Obviously the waves would need to be induced in the substrate ...
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Rock arches on the moon?
The large rock in the centre right position (cut off by the image's right edge) of this photo seems to include the left part of a (small) natural arch:
Is this indeed a rock arch? Are complete ...
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Optimal inclination for a long term LEO station serving as an intermediate stop to and from the Moon
Consider we want to build a long term LEO station which serves as an intermediate stop for flights to the Moon and back (possibly with aerobrake). Refueling, docking, crew transfers etc.
Several ...
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Would GRAIL be possible on more distant airless bodies such as Mercury and Callisto?
I was thinking for quite a while about sending this question to Maria Zuber's e-mail address (she was the principal investigator of the GRAIL mission to map the Moon's gravity field), but then I ...
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Is 1/6 G enough for humans to stay healthy?
Micro-G is known to be detrimental to health in the long-term. However, the Moon is at $\frac{1}{6}$ G (while Mars is at ~$\frac{3}{8}$ G). Is $\frac{1}{6}$ G enough for humans to remain healthy in ...
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Is there a way (working or in development) to track satellites in lunar orbit like we track objects in Earth Orbit?
I understand that Earth orbiting satellites are tracked using technologies such as radar, but due to the distance between the Earth and the Moon, they aren't really useful for Moon sats.
Is the ...
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Does the Moon's orbit intersect the Earth's orbit around the Sun?
I know that the Moon's orbital plane makes an angle of 5 degrees with the Earth's orbital plane or the ecliptic. Also, the Moon's orbit intersects the Earth's orbital plane at two nodes - ascending ...
