# Tag Info

50

How to Protect and Preserve the Historic and Scientific Value of U.S. Government Lunar Artifacts summarizes the 1967 Outer Space Treaty thusly: These recommendations are consistent with international law, including the following: The 1967 U.N. Outer Space Treaty (OST), which provides, in part: That outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all ...

17

Possession is 9/10 of the law. If you somehow get there and steal the flag, it's not like any Space Marines are going to jump out from behind a crater rim. Law needs to be enforceable. Maintaining ownership of the flag is a different issue. You can kiss your chance of being free on US soil goodbye, especially if you're a citizen. Laws would be found, made up,...

9

In the original draw, Artemis 3 would have docked to the "Lunar Gateway" (or a smaller replacement) from where the Lander would be deployed. Lunar Gateway would be on a highly elliptical seven-day moon orbit (Wiki Lunar Gateway, Orbit). Such an orbit would have most of its time an access to the lunar south pole. Artemis 3 on the other side is only scheduled ...

6

All 12 of the astronauts who walked on the moon reported that the dust smelled like gunpowder. For example, during Apollo 16, Charlie Duke reported 150:09:18 Duke: Houston, the lunar dust smells like gunpowder. (Pause) 150:09:27 England: We copy that, Charlie. 150:09:31 Duke: Really, really a strong odor to it. This NASA article confirms that all 12 ...

4

In Earth's atmosphere, fog and clouds form when saturated warm air flows into a mass of colder air. Condensation into droplets is also believed to be helped by the presence of fine dust particles. In an enclosed cavern, the most likely place for condensation to form would be as dew and frost on the walls and ceiling, rather than as airborne droplets. Just ...

4

There are two small moons of Mars called Phobos and Deimos discovered in 1877. Using orbital mechanics the mass of Mars could be calculated from the observed orbital period and the orbit diameter of the marsian moons. Using the diameter of Mars from astronomical measurements the surface gravity could be calculated. Before the space age, the orbit diameter of ...

3

The Moon is currently the only place that might make money. If I asked you for the best place to drill an oil well, we could discuss all the places that have warm climates, soft soil, access to seaports and all kinds of things. But none of that matters if there is no oil there. So instead, we invest billions in North Sea oil platforms - about the worst ...

3

To begin with, SpaceX bid Starship as their lunar lander. Starship used methalox as their propellant for their Raptor engines. However, Starship does need landing engines higher up on the hull for the moon landing to avoid digging a crater in the moon surface with the Raptor exhaust. So why don't they use SuperDracos here? Well, SuperDracos uses as ...

2

It may be that if your country is in a war with the USA, you may claim the flag as a war trophy. If your army manages to defeat the US, they may as well accept the loss of this particular flag. Otherwise, it is property of the US government. Both the US government (as stated by NASA) and the general public considers it a rather valuable asset. In most ...

2

There are similar situations on Earth where objects were taken and the original owners have been unable to get them back, such as the The Parthenon Marbles (also known as the Elgin Marbles). So while the law may make it technically theft once you have it and put it on display the United States may find it difficult to get back. Many countries are unwilling ...

2

Not for a landing. Moon, 1730 m/s. Mars requires twice as much, 3800 m/s.

2

Answering your first paragraph: But did Newton already calculate the Moon's gravity to be about a sixth that of Earth? His calculations were off. Principia Mathematica, volume 3, proposition XXXVII is "To find the force of the Moon to move the sea". Corollary 1 finds the ratio of the Sun's force on the tides to the Moon's force on the tides. ...

2

First of all, the SuperDracos were designed from the start primarily as a launch escape system. Although using them for propulsive landing was explored extensively, it was never implemented. For landing on Earth or Mars, the atmosphere is used to lose most of the craft's speed, with the thrusters (and/or parachute) used only after that. The moon has no ...

2

Method one is used currently on this planet. Pumps move water to a reservoir when electricity rates are lowest and demand is low, absorbing generator excess power. When the grid requires additional power beyond the capability of the current generating systems, the water is allowed to flow, spinning turbine generators in the manner you describe. At that point ...

1

According to an article in the NASA ADS journal, Measuring The Moon's Mass: It can be seen that the lunar mass was known to about +/- 50% between 1687 and 1755, +/- 10% between 1755 and 1830, +/- 3% between 1830 and 1900, +/- 0.15% between 1900 and 1968, and +/- 0.0001% between 1968 and the present [2002]. In 1900, the size and distance of the moon was ...

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This answer is really a long comment: it doesn't answer the question as such, but rather tells you some ways you probably can't measure the mass of the Moon in particular, but with an interesting corollary. One tempting thing is to say: well, the Moon's gravity should alter $g$ on Earth: can we measure that? Well, let's assume that the Moon and the Earth ...

1

A human colony has some essential needs that have to be supplied in order to flourish. Since the question asked why Mars might be superior, I'll focus on the Mars advantages and neglect the disadvantages. Air - Mars has small amounts of Nitrogen available in the atmosphere ~ 2.7% as discussed in This related question which could fairly easily be collected ...

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