Discussion
It looks quite powdery to me.
Before we started soft landing probes on the moon, there was genuine fear that the surface might be so loose and powdery that a probe or a Lunar Module might sink into a sea of dust. That proved unfounded. But I think there may be surfaces like that on bodies such as comets.
Before we started soft landing probes on the moon, there was genuine fear that the surface might be so loose and powdery that a probe or a Lunar Module might sink into a sea of dust. That proved unfounded. But I think there may be surfaces like that on bodies such as comets.
There will be a number of forces acting on the matter that makes up the object keeping it together. Gravity is the obvious one. There will also be molecular bonds and friction between the particles which will allow the particles to "stick" together.
However, the density may be quite low as the material may not be too compacted together - which could lead to a "merengue" type surface.
However, the density may be quite low as the material may not be too compacted together - which could lead to a "merengue" type surface.
Eric Mc said:
There will be a number of forces acting on the matter that makes up the object keeping it together. Gravity is the obvious one. There will also be molecular bonds and friction between the particles which will allow the particles to "stick" together.
However, the density may be quite low as the material may not be too compacted together - which could lead to a "merengue" type surface.
Will be interesting to see. There obviously isn't much gravity, hence the lander screwing itself into the surface (well, always assuming the surface is solid enough for that to work).However, the density may be quite low as the material may not be too compacted together - which could lead to a "merengue" type surface.
durbster said:
And the fact that it's effectively a suicide mission just makes it worse.
Not always bad as it does give the controllers a bit more freedom, so when the LCROSS mission deliberately crashed into the moon a few years back these were its 'last tweets' (read bottom to top)
(from one of Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books for those wondering)
NASA seem to be quite good at live streaming the big events of their missions, ie. the latest Mars lander, but I don't think ESA have ever had something quite like this before in the information age have they?
Mojocvh said:
Eric Mc said:
Watched the Sky at Night last night and they said they are covering the landing live on BBC starting at 9.00 pm on November 16.
That was quite an interesting episode..
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