Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Keeping Luna Junk Free

NASA has announced it plans to conduct the next phase of lunar exploration in such a way as to avoid whenever possible leaving junk in lunar orbit. The Apollo program tried to do that, as well, but the next generation of robotic probes and eventual manned exploration will be designed with one goal being to minimize despoiling the lunar environment.

The Moon has an interesting twist to its composition. Gravity is not uniform across the Moon because of the existence of particularly dense concentrations of mass ("mascons") throughout its body; gravity is stronger over the mascons than it is at other places. This means that no lunar orbit is ever stable over an extended period, and anything left in orbit will eventually crash into the surface.

NASA, of course, will not be the only organization operating on and around the Moon; other nations and even private concerns plan to be there, as well. To truly protect the lunar environment, all the players in the lunar game would have to agree to leave no junk behind.

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