4 ms·
Even assuming no obstacles, gravitational perturbations due to irregularities in the distribution of the moon's mass would upset the orbit and cause a crash.
by AQuantized 7y ago
Even assuming no obstacles, gravitational perturbations due to irregularities in the distribution of the moon's mass would upset the orbit and cause a crash.
- dmurray 7y agoYou couldn't get into a circular orbit that was always 47 feet from the surface. That's impossible anyway, because a great circle route across the moon's surface is not a perfect circle, it dips down into craters and up over mountains. But could you achieve a stable elliptical orbit whose lowest approach to the surface was 47 feet? It sounds plausible to me, if not particularly safe.
- Faark 7y agoActually it's hard to get a stable orbit around the moon at all. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_orbit#Perturbation_effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_orbit#Perturbation_effec...
- ableal 7y agoNevertheless, there's a short story from the SF golden age exactly featuring a satellite orbiting a few feet off the ground. Including perfectly drilled tunnels in the elevations ... Ah, here we go - "The Holes Around Mars" by Jerome Bixby: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/143541/short-story-about-a-moon-of-mars-whose-orbit-is-only-a-few-feet-up https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/143541/short-story...