It is an interesting point. For most of the West coast the moon should appear to “rise” about 11 p.m. With regard to getting a clear view you might drive up a hill to a place where you can get an unobstructed view of the horizon in the direction of moonrise (basically east). If you have binoculars they should be adequate for viewing. I’ve no idea what cameras are like these days. “You open it up and there’s no film in there!” as the photographer on that show said in 2002. All you camera operators are on yer own, but there’s abundant free “advice” on line which is gonna be worth what you pay for it. The edge of the moon where it hits is going to be in full sunlight, so it should be possible to see something. And possible it is gonna be bright af
Is this being performed for potential mining? My guess is mass spectroscopy to evaluate elements on the moon? It will tell how percentages of trapped gasses as well? Interesting topic, and thanks for writing about it! Public science for humanity on Earth! I'm betting the timing will negate some of the benefit of research to folks on the other side of the planet unless they have research vessels at anchor in our hemisphere to capture the event? IDK. Very interesting topic!!!!
No, it is not any sort of planned event. In order to get the most money out of the flight, the SpaceX team put as much fuel in that upper stage as they could. The two spacecraft that went on to the Moon (their operating companies have also neglected to buy advertising in L5 News so I am not mentioning them at this time) got what they needed out of the ride. The typical behaviour of contemporary space launch companies is to cause upper stages to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere if they have propellant available for a “de-orbit” burn to avoid cluttering the sky with space junk. However, this upper stage was very nearly empty when the delivery was completed, probably something like half a cup of kerosene, almost all of which may be coating the inside of the fuel tank by now given about 18 months in space, pushed a bit by solar wind, light pressure, and the vicissitudes of gravitational perturbations. It has gone past the Moon a bunch of times so far, and the near misses did nothing. There are no instruments aboard. Some landers on the Moon of recent vintage are going to be able to detect the seismic event from this impact, and once again the Moon may “ring like a bell” as mentioned after a previous impact event long years ago. As far as I know there are no instruments planning to view the impact event, but you are right to suppose that some information on what is there can be obtained from spectroscopic studies of the plume of stuff and any flare if it combusts. It is an impact from misadventure, not deliberate.
As far as I know the only Falcon 9 rocket system that carried two spacecraft to the Moon in 2025 is operated by SpaceX. I’m not paid to promote him nor his company, so I didn’t put in any advert for him. If you were thinking he or his company might like a paid advert in L5 News, that would be an interesting possibility. We can pay a 20% commission if you sell an advert for us from the funds we actually receive. For SpaceX on this article I would charge $10,000 as a one time fee. Reach is currently 772 subscribed readers, and whomever sees a link to it. In the absence of a paid fee, I see no reason to mention him or his company.
Thanks for the details and the heads up on this event. I hope the moon has cleared the trees by 11:35pm so I can get a clear view.
It is an interesting point. For most of the West coast the moon should appear to “rise” about 11 p.m. With regard to getting a clear view you might drive up a hill to a place where you can get an unobstructed view of the horizon in the direction of moonrise (basically east). If you have binoculars they should be adequate for viewing. I’ve no idea what cameras are like these days. “You open it up and there’s no film in there!” as the photographer on that show said in 2002. All you camera operators are on yer own, but there’s abundant free “advice” on line which is gonna be worth what you pay for it. The edge of the moon where it hits is going to be in full sunlight, so it should be possible to see something. And possible it is gonna be bright af
Jim,
Is this being performed for potential mining? My guess is mass spectroscopy to evaluate elements on the moon? It will tell how percentages of trapped gasses as well? Interesting topic, and thanks for writing about it! Public science for humanity on Earth! I'm betting the timing will negate some of the benefit of research to folks on the other side of the planet unless they have research vessels at anchor in our hemisphere to capture the event? IDK. Very interesting topic!!!!
No, it is not any sort of planned event. In order to get the most money out of the flight, the SpaceX team put as much fuel in that upper stage as they could. The two spacecraft that went on to the Moon (their operating companies have also neglected to buy advertising in L5 News so I am not mentioning them at this time) got what they needed out of the ride. The typical behaviour of contemporary space launch companies is to cause upper stages to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere if they have propellant available for a “de-orbit” burn to avoid cluttering the sky with space junk. However, this upper stage was very nearly empty when the delivery was completed, probably something like half a cup of kerosene, almost all of which may be coating the inside of the fuel tank by now given about 18 months in space, pushed a bit by solar wind, light pressure, and the vicissitudes of gravitational perturbations. It has gone past the Moon a bunch of times so far, and the near misses did nothing. There are no instruments aboard. Some landers on the Moon of recent vintage are going to be able to detect the seismic event from this impact, and once again the Moon may “ring like a bell” as mentioned after a previous impact event long years ago. As far as I know there are no instruments planning to view the impact event, but you are right to suppose that some information on what is there can be obtained from spectroscopic studies of the plume of stuff and any flare if it combusts. It is an impact from misadventure, not deliberate.
Thank you for your wisdom, and kind reply Jim! I always learn something, or in many cases quite allot!!!
You’re welcome, Patrick. Thank you for your engaging inquiries and for reading my stuff.
That's all due to the SpaceX rocket, right? Elon musk? I didn't see you mention SpaceX or musk in your essay there
As far as I know the only Falcon 9 rocket system that carried two spacecraft to the Moon in 2025 is operated by SpaceX. I’m not paid to promote him nor his company, so I didn’t put in any advert for him. If you were thinking he or his company might like a paid advert in L5 News, that would be an interesting possibility. We can pay a 20% commission if you sell an advert for us from the funds we actually receive. For SpaceX on this article I would charge $10,000 as a one time fee. Reach is currently 772 subscribed readers, and whomever sees a link to it. In the absence of a paid fee, I see no reason to mention him or his company.