The explanations of the moon rotating while always keeping one side facing earth are still perplexing to me, but I hadn’t thought about how fast it’s actually orbiting us. I know the Apollo rockets traveled 24,000 MPH, but how were the astronauts able to safely land the lunar module on a body moving so fast? The lunar module wouldn’t have been able to slowly descend to the surface, it would have to race to catch it. There’s no air resistance to make astronauts or moon dust fly off, but wouldn’t there still be an insane amount of g-force at such high speeds?
In: Physics
They flew in their rocket ship until is was going as fast as the Moon. When they were going the same speed as the Moon, they simply walked down a ladder. It’s like transferring from a moving helicopter to the deck of a moving ship. If they’re both going the same speed in the same direction, the relative motion is zero. Your foot doesn’t care how fast the water under the ship or the vacuum around the Moon is moving. (There is no absolute reference frame, the Solar System itself is moving at a high speed, but we’re all moving at the same high speed.)
Latest Answers