Did you ever wonder what it would be like to visit the Moon?

By David McClelland

As I draft this blog, we have clear skies and a full Moon that is shining brightly like a spotlight from the heavens. Looking at it as I walked outside early this morning, I wondered what it would be like to visit our Moon, just to check it out.

I did some research and learned a little more about the Moon. Did you know that it is 25% or ¼ of the size of the Earth, but it is only 1/81 of its mass? I'd always imagined the Moon to be even smaller than that relative to the Earth. How far would we have to travel to get there? I was reminded that the Moon is 384,405 km from the Earth or about 238,858.2 miles.

The Moon orbits the Earth once every month with each orbit taking about 27.3 days. It spins once on its axis once every 720 hours or every 30 days. I find the precision of these movements to be fascinating since we can't keep any two clocks or watches exactly in sync. It just goes to show that God is better at everything, including timing.

The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite and the 5th largest satellite in the Solar System. The Moon is the brightest object, after the Sun, in the night sky, but it does not give out any light itself. It shines down on us only because its light-colored surface reflects sunlight and only the side of the Moon lit by the Sun is bright enough for us to see. The Moon appears to change shape because we see more of the bright side each month as it orbits the Earth and then we see less of it again. These shapes are called the "phases" of the Moon. The Moon "waxes" (grows) from a crescent-shaped "new Moon" to a full moon. During the second half, it "wanes" (dwindles) back to a crescent-shaped "old Moon." A lunar month is the time between one full moon and the next. This is slightly longer than the time it takes the Moon to circle the Earth because the Earth is also moving.

The Moon has no atmosphere and its surface is simply white dust, pitted with craters created by meteorites smashing into it early in its history. The Moon is the only other world on which humans have ever set foot. Because the Moon has no atmosphere or wind, the footprints planted in its dusty surface in 1969 by the Apollo astronauts are still there today, perfectly preserved. There are also large, dark patches called seas – because that is what people once believed that they were. However, they are really lava flows from ancient volcanoes. One side of the Moon is always turned away from us and called its dark side. That is because the Moon spins at exactly the same speed as it orbits the Earth.

After the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited by only unmanned spacecraft, notably by Soviet Lunokhod rovers. Since 2004, Japan, China, India, the United States and the European Space Agency have each sent lunar orbiters. They have confirmed the discovery of lunar water/ice in permanently shadowed craters at the poles. The Moon remains under the Outer Space Treaty, free to all nations to explore for peaceful purposes.

Eclipes can only occur when the Sun, Earth and Moon are all in a straight line. Solar eclipses occur when the Moon is between the Sun and Earth. In contrast, lunar eclipses occur near a full Moon, when the Earth is between the Sun and Moon. In a total eclipse, the Moon completely covers the disc of the Sun and the solar corona becomes visible to the naked eye. Because the Moon's orbit around the Earth is inclined by about 5 degrees to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, eclipses do not occur at every full and new Moon. For an eclipse to occur, the Moon must be near the intersection of the two orbital planes.

Upcoming lunar missions include Russia's Luna-Glob, an unmanned lander with a set of seismometers. Privately funded lunar exploration has been promoted by the Google Lunar X Prize, announced in 2007, which offers $20 million to anyone who can land a robotic rover on the Moon and meet other specific criteria. Better tell your children and grandchildren to get to work on this project pronto!!! $20 million could come in handy!