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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Does the SpaceX Crew Dragon need any modifications for circumlunar flight?
Does it need upgraded heat shields, communication gear, or anything else? Or can we just put it on a Falcon Heavy and do it now?
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Why does the proposed Lunar Crater Radio Telescope suggest an optimal latitude of 20 degrees North?
In the proposal for NASA's Lunar Crater Radio Telescope, it claims that one of the key requirements is a "location on farside near ≈ 20°N and 180° ±45°E to avoid Earth-based radio interference ...
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Why radiation hardened processors are designed to withstand so large total ionizing doses?
I took a look at the Preliminary Radiation Analysis of the Total Ionizing Dose
for the Resource Prospector Mission paper and was quite surprised to find how "low" total radiation doses ...
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Does Chang'e 6 try to avoid sampling contaminated soil?
Watching this amazing video of Chang'e 6 taking samples from the Apollo Crater on the far side of the Moon, I was struck by the proximity of the sample channels to the lander. It's understandable ...
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Moons rotation about its own axis [closed]
Since the moon is tidally locked with earth, we always see its same face. How then did we realize that the moon may also be rotating about its own axis?
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Permanent living on Maglev train on the Moon as a colony
NASA is considering a proposal to build a levitating train system on the Moon.
The Moon's surface is often flat and smooth. Maybe building a mobile train colony similar to the movie Snowpiercer on the ...
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Can Starship land on the moon horizontally?
Since the landing engines will be halfway up the body anyways, how about putting the landing legs to extend perpendicular and land with nose and main engine bay pointing towards their respective ...
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How can I plot ground tracks on the surface of the Moon?
I'm curious if there's a module or Python library capable of plotting ground tracks on the Moon's surface, similar to how Skyfield or Astropy functions. I understand that Two-Line Elements (TLEs) are ...
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What is the order of magnitude of perturbing forces in a lunar orbit in relation to the orbital altitude?
Although there are many sources that compare the magnitude of perturbing forces in an Earth orbit (see for example the answer to this question), I haven't been able to find the same information for ...
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What are the likely issues and challenges in developing LTC: Coordinated Lunar Time?
In April of 2024, the US White House directed NASA to define a workable definition and operational plan for LTC: Coordinated Lunar Time.
White House directs NASA to create time standard for the moon | ...
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Would a ice core samples taken on the Moon provide us with information about the past that we cannot easily obtain in other ways?
This article on NASA's website describes 10 things we’ve learned about Earth by studying the Moon, including the makeup of a newborn Earth and potential clues to how life began on Earth. The ...
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Are there any laws in place for a potential lunar territorial dispute?
Considering the limited number of sites of interest to both the Artemis program and the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), it would seem more than likely that both projects, and by extension ...
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Is the "light-time" correction for the Moon's position in Meeus "Astronomical Algorithms" putting the Moon in inertial position or apparent position?
I'm looking at the second edition of Meeus's "Astronomical Algorithms," chapter 47, "Position of the Moon." At the bottom of page 337, right before getting into the actual formulae ...
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Temperature of the moon 4ft off the surface
If the surface of the moon is 100°C, what temperature would it be four feet off the surface, given the vacuum on the moon?
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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 ...
