PLANET SEARCH

FUTURES:
Winner of Sir Arthur Clarke Award for 'Best Written Presentation', 2005

Planet Search - Find the image you want!

PAY FOR ANY ITEM
Use any common credit or debit card to pay for your purchase.

The Moon (1)
Our Closest Neighbour in Space
  • Diameter: 2,160 miles/3,476 km
  • Distance from Earth: 238,856 miles/384,401 km
  • Period of revolution: 29.5 days
  • Rotation: 29.5 days
  • Gravity (x Earth's): 0.16
  • Axial Tilt: 6.73 degrees
  • Temperature: 110C day max/-173C night min
The most widely accepted theory for the formation of the Moon was proposed by my fellow space artist Dr William K (Bill) Hartmann (who is also a planetary scientist). Some four and a half billion years ago, a huge asteroidal body struck Earth obliquely, blasting off its outer layers, which coalesced in orbit into the Moon. Moon formation

In 1965 Ranger 9 (the last of the series) crashed in the crater Alphonsus and sent back nearly 6000 TV pictures, some of which were transmitted live.

 Ranger 9
This lunar base was painted for The Newsround Book of Space, which in 1992 was voted 'Book of the Year' by children on BBC television. This base is constructed of cylindrical modules also to be used to build the 'Freedom' space station in Earth-orbit. Lunar Base 1
This more advanced base (from the same book) has a large area of solar panels to provide electrical power, and a mass-driver to project lunar material into space, to be used in building orbital colonies (such as proposed by the late Gerard K. O'Neill). Lunar Base 2
The SMART-1 luner probe, which is currently in lunar orbit. One of the most promising methods of propulsion, this uses solar panels to produce electrical power for an ion motor, which gives a low thrust over long periods, building up high speeds at low acceleration. It could be used for later manned missions, eg. to Mars. From Futures

e-mail: AstroArt Tel/Fax: 0121 777 1802 (intl: +44 -0)