Should a Lunar Rover (Moon Car) be light or heavy?
Mass... On one hand I think it should be heavy due to the reduction in gravity on the moon i.e. heavier to keep it on the ground. On the other hand I'm thinking if it was that heavy there would be mobility problems...the actual lunar rover (Apollo 15 i think) was about 500 pounds or 250kg. But I don't know if thats light or heavy for one ha. Thanks for all the help :)
Lunar Rover's ability to stay on moon?
Can anyone tell me how the lunar rover was able to stay on the moon despite the low gravity, and how gravity on the moon affected the movement of the lunar rover. Thanks!
What is a lunar rover?
A rover (or sometimes planetary rover) is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of a planet or other celestial body. Some rovers have been designed to transport members of a human spaceflight crew; others have been partially or fully autonomous robots. Rovers usually arrive at the planetary surface on a lander-style spacecraft.Rovers are created to land on another planet, besides Earth, to find out information and to take samples. They can collect dust, rocks, and even take pictures. They are very useful for exploring the universe.A lunar rover or Moon rover is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of the moon. Some rovers have been designed to transport members of a human spaceflight crew, such as the U.S. Apollo program’s lunar roving vehiclesNASA included lunar roving vehicles in three Apollo missions: Apollo 15 (which landed on the Moon July 30, 1971), Apollo 16 (which landed April 21, 1972) and Apollo 17 (which landed December 11, 1972)
How do we know the Chinese really have a lunar rover on the moon, is there a way for the US to prove it is actually there?
There are a number of means to do so, depending on how absolute or fast you want your proof.Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Still in operation after 9 years, LRO has been able to map numerous lunar landing sites, even seeing the foot trails made by Apollo astronauts. (See the gallery in the link for examples.) It would have no trouble spotting the Chang’e 4 landing site. (After all, LRO was able to spot the Chang’e 3 landing site in 2014: NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Views Chang'e Lunar Rover Landing Site )Signals interception. NASA’s Deep Space Network is the largest, most extensive system for communicating with deep space probes. It will easily be able to spot the Queqiao relay satellite orbiting at the Earth-moon Lagrange-2 point behind the moon. Chang'e 4 - Wikipedia . NASA would easily be able to tell if the Chinese are actually relaying signals from Queqiao, or just faking it on Earth.Experience and scientific papers.It’s worth noting that space probes like Chang’e 4 don’t just send pictures home - many scientists across the world will use the results from the lander’s scientific instruments to publish scientific papers. The Saturn probe Cassini has generated 3,616 scientific papers as of 2016 (and the data it sent home is still generating more papers even after the probe was decommissioned by crashing it into Saturn.)Meanwhile, the scientific communities of the US, Russia, and other nations have studied the moon’s far side with lunar orbiters. We know what it looks like: visual appearance, mineral maps, topography, radiation environment, and more.So, that’s a vast amount of data that will look obviously fake to experienced space programs and scientists around the world if the Chinese probe is just probing gray beach sand in a movie studio.
The Lunar rover had compasses. Which way is north on the Moon?
As others have mentioned, the Moon does not have a magnetic field: its iron core is small and sufficiently solid that it can’t create the molten iron currents that generate Earth’s magnetic field. Of the rocky bodies in the inner solar system, a magnetic compass would only work on Earth and Mercury (as places we’ve measured a magnetic field). On Venus, the magnet in the compass would de-magnetize thanks to the heat, and on Mars, it would probably just point to the nearest deposit of magnetic minerals, if it didn’t just spin aimlessly. Go farther out, and you can use one on Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede, and flying in the giant planets’ atmospheres.So, the Apollo astronauts and engineers knew a compass would be useless for navigation, but they still wanted astronauts to be able to leave line of sight of the lander. The rover was tracked by an odometer (how far have you driven) and a directional gyro — using a spinning gyroscope to measure how far you have turned in a given trip. It also carried a sundial for a backup, as the Sun moved very slowly across the sky. The Earth would also keep the same bearing in the sky, so an alert astronaut could get roughly a sense of ‘which way is the lander’ and hopefully get within line of sight if they got lost.
Moon landings >how did the astronaults lunar rovers get to the moon ... in kit form ?
The lunar rover was folded up and stowed in the handy comaprtment on the side of the lunar module descent stage. It was deployed by the astronauts using a series of pulleys and then various components were attached. In a sense it was a kit. Luckily (and apparently unknown to those fools who insist it could never have been taken because it's too bifg to fit inside the LM) the first rover taken to the Moon was deployed while being observed by a live TV camera, so we have a great visual record of how it was done. Google the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, find the APollo 15 video section and then scroll down to the 'deploying the rover' section. You'll find some nice video clips there showing how it was folded, stored and deployed.
How was the lunar rover that the astronauts drove on the moon stored in the small lander?
They were folded up and stored in one of four Quad bays in the descent stage of the LEM.It’s also how the images of Armstrong descending the ladder and stepping on the moon were done being that he was the first to do so. A panel folded out from one of the quad bays housing the camera which took the photo.To the right of the ladder is the bay which stored the Rover.The MESA was stored to the left of the ladder and it was this fold out platform from which Armstrong was filmed….The Rover was folded up to store in the quad bay..>It was deployed from the bay and unfolded on the lunar surface.
If you lived on the backside of the moon and you had a speedy lunar rover, in what direction might you drive?
It's a sphere. Therefore any straight line path will get you there. The variable is how long it takes. If you are at the center of the far side, then all paths to an Earth view are equal. If you are not at the center point then traveling away from the center point will get you there quicker.
Why did the astronauts take & leave the US flag on the moon?
Did you know that flag was knocked down by the blast from the lunar module as it was taking off? I know those who believe the moon landing was faked will point to the flag appearing to be waving as evidence but it was held up with bicycle spokes.