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SpaceX will reach the moon in a little over a month, much earlier than expected.
But it’s all coincidental and will cause some confusion.
SpaceX, the rocket company started by Elon Musk, was chosen by NASA to provide the spaceship that would take its astronauts back to the surface of the moon. This is still years away.
Instead, it is the four-ton upper stage of a SpaceX rocket launched seven years ago that will hit the moon on March 4, based on recent observations and calculations by amateur astronomers.
Bill Gray, the developer of Project Pluto, an astronomical software package, said the impact is estimated at 7:25 a.m. Eastern time, and the rocket fragment won’t miss the moon, although there is still some uncertainty about the exact time and location. It is used to calculate the orbits of asteroids and comets.
“It is quite certain that it will hit, and it will hit within minutes of predicted, and possibly within a few kilometers,” said Mr. Gray.
Since the beginning of the space age, various man-made artifacts have made their way to the solar system and are not necessarily expected to be seen again. This includes Mr Musk’s Tesla Roadster shipped. First launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket In an orbit past Mars in 2018. But sometimes they return, such as the appearance of a newly discovered mysterious object in 2020. It turned out to be part of a rocket launched in 1966. During NASA’s Surveyor missions to the Moon.
Mr. Gray has been tracking this particular piece of SpaceX debris for years, which helped launch the Deep Space Climate Observatory for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on February 11, 2015.
Also known by its abbreviated name DSCOVR, this observatory was en route to a point about a million miles from Earth that could provide early warning of potentially devastating eruptions of energetic particles from the sun.
DSCOVR was originally called Triana, a world-observation mission championed by Al Gore while he was vice president. The spacecraft, cynically named GoreSat, was put in storage for years until it was adapted for use as a solar storm warning system. Today, it regularly captures images of the entire planet Earth from space, including when the moon passes in front of the planet, which is Triana’s main purpose.
Most often, the upper stage of a Falcon 9 After the rocket delivers its payload into orbit, it is pushed back into Earth’s atmosphere as a regular way to avoid clutter in space.
But this upper stage needed all the propellant to send DSCOVR on its way to its distant target, and eventually passed the Moon’s orbit and ended up in a very high, elongated orbit around Earth.
This opened up the possibility of a collision someday. The dead and uncontrolled movement of the Falcon 9 stage is primarily determined by the gravitational force of the Earth, moon, and sun, and a pressing impulse from sunlight.
Debris in low-Earth orbit is closely watched for danger to satellites and the International Space Station, but more distant objects like the DSCOVR rocket are mostly forgotten.
“As far as I know, I’m the only one watching this,” said Mr. Gray.
During a large number of spacecraft sent to the moon crashed thereThis seems to be the first time anything from Earth not aimed at the Moon will end up there.
On January 5, the rocket stage passed less than 6,000 miles from the moon. The moon’s gravity swung it on a course that looked like it might cross paths with the moon later on.
Mr. Gray asked amateur astronomers to take a look when the object passed near Earth last week.
One of the people who answered the call was Peter Birtwhistle, a retired information technology specialist who lives about 50 miles west of London. On Thursday last week, the domed 16-inch telescope in its garden, majestically named the Great Shefford Observatory, pointed to the part of the sky where the rocket scene passed in a matter of minutes.
“This thing moves pretty fast,” said Mr Birtwhistle.
The observations fixed the orbit sufficiently to predict an impact. Astronomers will have a chance to take another look next month before the rocket stage makes its final take on the moon. It should then hit the far side of the moon so that no one from Earth can see it.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter vehicle will not be able to see the impact live. However, it will then pass over the expected impact area and take pictures of the newly excavated crater.
Split up to 10 to 20 meters wide, or 65 feet in diameter, of four tons of metal hitting at about 5,700 miles per hour, said Mark Robinson, professor of earth and space studies at Arizona State University, who served as principal investigator for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s camera.
This will give scientists a glimpse of what’s under the surface, and unlike meteor strikes, they’ll know the exact size and time of the impact.
India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, also orbiting the moon, can also photograph the impact zone.
Other spacecraft headed towards the moon this year It might get a chance to detect the impact area – if they also don’t form unwanted craters.
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