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> There is also a stable polar orbit where the orbiter stays lined up between the Earth and the Moon. Since the surface is tidally locked you again get the land
by haberman 8y ago
> There is also a stable polar orbit where the orbiter stays lined up between the Earth and the Moon. Since the surface is tidally locked you again get the lander back easily.
Wait, what keeps the polar orbit lined up with the Earth? If the orbit just stayed constant, it would deviate from being lined up from the Earth, right?
- cmsmith 8y agoIt wouldn't be exactly a polar orbit, but slightly offset from one - like a sun-synchronous orbit around the earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit
- btilly 8y agoExactly. And since the orbit turns at the same speed as the Moon does, it works. That is why in the article they offer a map of where the landing could have been and came up with https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/moonpossiblelandings.png https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/moonpossible... You see the landings on the equator, and also the strip going over the pole.
- haberman 8y agoBut what makes the orbit turn? What is accelerating the satellite?
- MPSimmons 8y agoIt uses the equatorial bulge to process the orbit. https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/5312/why-would-sun-synchronous-orbits-be-impossible-around-perfectly-spherical-bodies https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/5312/why-would-sun...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]