Questions tagged [the-moon]
Questions about Earth's Moon. Also for questions about spacecraft, manned missions, potential missions, etc. related to Earth's Moon.
632
questions
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1answer
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Did Streptococcus mitis survive 950 days in the lunar environment?
The "Apollo 50th" account on Twitter tweets news and events day-to-day as they happened 50 years ago.
Yesterday, the following information has been tweeted:
The microorganism Streptococcus mitis ...
34
votes
3answers
4k views
Why are there mountains/mounds in the centre of craters on the lunar surface?
From clear images of moon's surface we can see many of the craters have small mountains/mounds (or montes) in the centre. So, what is the mechanism behind the formation of these mountains and which ...
21
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2answers
4k views
Why did Apollo 11 land at the sea of tranquility?
As we all know in 1969 Apollo 11 landing made history but, why did it land specifically at the sea of tranquility also known as Mare Tranquilitatis. Probably they would have chosen this because of ...
10
votes
1answer
316 views
How much silver was left on the Moon by Apollo Lunar Modules?
Both the descent and ascent stages of the Apollo Lunar Module were powered by silver-zinc batteries.
Source: Apollo Lunar Module Electrical Power System Overview
The total weight of these batteries ...
-5
votes
2answers
78 views
Is it easier to take off from the moon or earth? [closed]
how much mass does the moon have?
how much mass does the earth have?
how much force needed to leave earth
how much force needed to leave the moon
4
votes
0answers
46 views
How to design a lunar flyby trajectory in GMAT?
I am trying to design a flyby mission to the moon using electric propulsion on GMAT. I've gone through the tutorials, however, the most useful one "Lunar Flyby to the moon using multiple shooting" ...
2
votes
0answers
33 views
Are there any crewed missions planned or designed for high orbit/cislunar space?
We talk a lot about going to The Moon again, but what about very high Earth orbit, say geostationary and beyond? Are there any plans for crewed missions? If so, what would their goals have been?
...
3
votes
1answer
25 views
How can I generate Chebyshev cofficients from SPICE for J2000 Inertial to Moon ME Frame?
I want to extract the Chebyshev coefficients in order to be able to calculate the time-varying transformation from the ICRF / J2000 Inertial frame to the Moon ME (moon mean earth) frame. I know I can ...
1
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0answers
54 views
What is the maximum thrust a pressure-fed methalox engine can produce?
SpaceX revealed on 4/30/2020 a new version of Starship designed to land humans on the Moon. Auxiliary engines are mounted high on the body for the last part of the descent, apparently to eliminate the ...
4
votes
0answers
118 views
How do the Dynetics-led team's ALPACA lander's “drop tanks” rendezvous and jettison work in terms of trajectories?
Ars Technica's NASA awards lunar lander contracts to Blue Origin, Dynetics—and Starship says:
NASA announced Thursday that it has awarded three contracts to begin initial development of lunar ...
-6
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1answer
95 views
Why did the Apollo lunar missions not let all astronauts at least set foot on the Moon's surface? [duplicate]
All Apollo lunar missions had a third crew member who remained on board the command module.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing#Crewed_landings
Imagine being the guy who has to risk ...
-4
votes
1answer
94 views
What was the point of the laser reflectors which were placed on the Moon with the Apollo landings? [closed]
Until today, I had never once heard anyone ever mention these "reflectors" which apparently were placed on the Moon at the landing site in order to verify from Earth that humans were there.
On https:/...
2
votes
1answer
62 views
What is the slope of the sides of Aristarchus crater on the Moon?
The question If you fell into a crater on the moon in your spacesuit and no jetpack, is there a way to use low gravity to get out of the hole? mentions Aristarchus crater as an example.
It's a pretty ...
3
votes
0answers
50 views
If you fell into a crater on the moon in your spacesuit and no jetpack, is there a way to use low gravity to get out of the hole?
If you fell down a crater or hole on the moon, is there a way to exploit microfravity/low gravity to get to the top? Lets say your survived a fall into Aristarchus crater on the moon with a slow slide ...
7
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5answers
1k views
Could moon ice be used to fuel a steam powered jetpack for EVA in space or high altitude exploration on the moon?
For long term moon operations, would it be practical to have a jetpack that used steam as a source for EVA on the moon surface and above it in orbit?
I imagine a scenario where lunar ice deposits ...
2
votes
1answer
65 views
Lunar surface illumination levels
I am trying to determine the lunar surface near or far side daytime illumination levels in Lux or foot-candles but there seems to be no directly measured values available. I did find this information ...
4
votes
1answer
69 views
How many times were things crashed into the Moon “for science” (seismic events)?
This answer to Did Apollo 13 produce any scientific results? begins:
In addition to crashing the Saturn V's S-IVB into the moon to collect seismic data from sensors installed by the crews of Apollo ...
0
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0answers
93 views
How much does it cost to land on a lunar mascon?
This answer to Delta-v for landing on the moon estimates that to go from a circular orbit at 110km to a landing on a spherical Moon would require an absolute minimum of 1736 m/s and the Apollo landers ...
4
votes
1answer
287 views
How many Lunar Module Ascent Engines were produced? How many still exist?
I know of two LM Ascent Engines still in existence. I believe Grumman built 13 Lunar modules. I also think at least 5 engines were tested at White Sands. So that is 18 that were built at a minimum. ...
2
votes
1answer
59 views
UHF transceiver for cubesats network
I already asked things related to this topic. But this time I will try to divide it by points to make it more understandable.
Features of my cubesats:
Would have 8 cubesats 3U in Earth's orbit
The ...
2
votes
0answers
66 views
How to estimate that receiving GNSS signals Earth while orbiting the Moon will still provide locations to about 200 meters of uncertainty?
IEEE Spectrum's Can Astronauts Use GPS to Navigate on the Moon? NASA Scientists Say Yes says:
Kar-Ming Cheung and Charles Lee of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California did the math, and ...
4
votes
0answers
49 views
How to get lunar L, B, C parameters from the Moon's 3x3 rotation matrix from the Python package Skyfield?
Answers to What are the “Moon L, B, C” angles shown in this solar eclipse simulation? explain that L and B (or "l" and "b") are the "selenographic coordinates of the Moon's apparent center" (latitude ...
5
votes
0answers
47 views
DIY Lunar regolith simulant
I'm looking to make a physical lunar regolith stimulant at home. I don't care about chemical composition, color, or anything like that, but I'd like it to behave similarly to actual lunar regolith in ...
3
votes
1answer
124 views
How bright is the Martian landscape during the long (up to two hour) twilight?
The answer to the question "How much more quickly does night come on Mars compared to Earth? Will it be easier to see Mercury there?" says Martian twilight can last up to two hours.
Has any lander ...
0
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0answers
37 views
Can the International Space Station be maneuvered towards the Moon? [duplicate]
Is it possible to maneuver ISS towards the Moon or Mars (rare case in future)?
6
votes
1answer
220 views
Mining Helium-3 on the moon and sending it to Earth?
It would be best to mine and process material on the moon to obtain helium-3, but my question is, what if we did an unmanned mission?
A small robot 1 meter long, powered by solar energy, that takes ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
Could the Apollo astronauts distinguish Earth's continents and oceans from the moon?
This article "Earthshine Reflects Earth's Oceans And Continents From The Dark Side Of The Moon" indicates that the difference in reflection of light from the Earth’s land masses and oceans can be seen ...
24
votes
4answers
7k views
Why is NASA building its own rocket for the moon mission when it could use SpaceX's?
I read in this article that NASA is building its own rocket for the moon mission.
Why would they build their outdated and inefficient rocket, when they could instead use a SpaceX rocket and use their ...
14
votes
3answers
2k views
Earth Moon Pork chop plot
Does pork-chop plots exist for Earth-Moon System? I could only find pork-chop plots for Earth-planet systems.Could someone please shed some light on this topic?
1
vote
1answer
69 views
Lunar landing module and orbiting space craft personnel transfer [duplicate]
How did the crew of Apollo get from the orbiting capsule into the Lunar lander, as the orbiter rocket engine was between the orbiter and Lunar lander?
4
votes
1answer
98 views
Where to find the full reflectance map of the Moon?
I'm looking for a reflectance map of the Moon to use in 3D visualization software. I've found NASA's CGI Moon Kit, which is described as
These color and elevation maps are designed for use in 3D ...
6
votes
0answers
137 views
Does the low gravity on Moon eliminate the need for a launch pad/flame trench for a reusable rocket launch?
I'm new to rocket science and I learned how the rockets do not reach full thrust immediately and isn't really stable for the initial couple of seconds - hence the need for "launch clamps" and a ...
1
vote
0answers
35 views
Apollo 11 Moon orbital elements [duplicate]
I'm simulating several pieces of the Apollo 11 mission.
I'm now at the point of performing lunar landing sequence, and I'm looking for data. I found this report, but it only has partial data, while ...
5
votes
1answer
175 views
When the moon rock heats up to 600°C, does only Helium comes out?
When lunar rock is heated to 600 °C to extract Helium-3, are gases expelled other than helium? Inductance process would be used in heating the rock.
1
vote
0answers
37 views
How can 3He be mined on the moon? [duplicate]
Now I know how it is detected, but what would the mining process be like? given that there is a lot on the moon but not concentrated, so you have to process large amounts of surface to extract a ...
8
votes
1answer
121 views
How could the presence of 3He be detected on the lunar surface?
I have been investigating this isotope of helium for a while, which is extremely abundant on the moon (and in general in the entire solar system except on planets with atmosphere). It is believed that ...
1
vote
1answer
124 views
What calculations should I do to go from LEO to the moon with an ionic motor?
my question is, what calculations should I do to be able to go from LEO to the lunar orbit?
If this were done, two of these thrusters would be used
https://www.cubesatshop.com/product/ifm-nano-...
1
vote
0answers
62 views
How much would reduce the cost of sending kgs to the moon having a 200,000 miles space elevator there?
According to this article/study
A space elevator to the moon could be doable
Its central element is a cable that would be anchored to the moon and
span more than 200,000 miles to a point above ...
10
votes
1answer
242 views
Where in the Pale Blue Dot image should the Earth's moon be?
In the description of this image it is claimed that Moon should be detectable in famous "Pale Blue Dot" image.
Detailed analysis also suggests that Voyager detected the moon as well, but it is too ...
6
votes
1answer
79 views
Chang'e 4 lunar rover movement
Recently China has released images of the far side of the Moon taken by Chang'e 4 mission's rover Yutu-2. While pictures are really nice and beautiful, I have stumbled to one rover movement feature ...
0
votes
3answers
322 views
How to solve this exercise in orbital mechanics; the moon stops in its orbit, what happens next?
As an exercise in orbital mechanics, suppose the moon were to suddenly stop orbiting Earth, and instead at time $t=0$ begin moving in the same direction as Earth so that their relative velocity were ...
3
votes
2answers
101 views
Why does it get hotter in the thermosphere than on the moon?
I would have expected the surface of the moon to be hotter. Both become hot owing to solar radiation.
0
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0answers
42 views
Ascent propulsion system [duplicate]
For lunar module and spacecraft ascent bipropellant hypergolic fuels comprising of N2O4 oxidizer and Hydrazine derivates/blends are used. How on Earth have we accepted such a dangerous, toxic, ...
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0answers
66 views
moon's true anomaly at date of new moon
I've seen on this site: https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/moonorbit.html
a table that gives the true anomaly of the moon at the time of new moon.
The difference between the true anomaly at one new ...
2
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0answers
68 views
Mass of a circumlunar power transmission line?
The most easily available power source on the Moon is solar power. This has the obvious drawback that the night is two weeks long, during which you would probably still need power for a base to ...
asked Jan 15 at 23:25
SE - stop firing the good guys
19.3k1 gold badge67 silver badges127 bronze badges
3
votes
1answer
224 views
Did Project Horizon draft any proposals for small arms weapons for astronauts?
The 1959 Project Horizon discusses building a base on the moon, and also, according to the Wikipedia article, mentions weapons to be used for (of course) fighting the Soviets attacking the moon base, ...
2
votes
2answers
229 views
Interplanetary spacecraft flight operating system and programming language
Which programming languages and operating systems are mostly used for interplanetary satellites (such as a mission to the moon)?
To my knowledge, I know some LEO CubeSats use C programming language ...
3
votes
0answers
115 views
Building a city on the Moon using inflatable modules, and the Starship as a launch vehicle? [closed]
What are the main challenges for someone (such as Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk) to mass-produce a flight-ready inflatable habitat(1000 of them), capable of sustaining 16 humans, and use them to build a ...
9
votes
1answer
187 views
What went wrong in the Chandrayaan-2 mission with the Vikram lander?
On September 7th 2019, ISRO attempted to land a lunar lander ,Vikram, with rover , Pragyan, on the moon. It was very exciting to watch until the lander lost communication with ground station during ...
5
votes
1answer
714 views
Has there been any serious prospect of human landing on the far side of the Moon?
As far as I know, the only serious projects for human exploration of the Moon have been the Apollo project, some other US studies with Gemini capsules and a couple of embryonic Soviet projects.
I see ...
