![]() ![]() They reached lunar orbit after only 51 hours and 49 minutes in space, arriving on July 19th, 1969. This mission began on July 16th, 1969, where a Saturn V multi-stage rocket took the astronauts from Kennedy Space Center into orbit. Naturally, it was the Apollo 11 mission, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon, that made the greatest headlines. The Apollo missions, which were the only manned Lunar mission, were fairly quick in reaching the Moon. It only took 36 hours to make the trip, therefore traveling an average speed of 10,500 km/hr. This basic, but pioneering probe was launched on January 2nd and flew past the Moon by a few thousand kilometers on January 4th. This mission was known as the Soviet Luna 1 probe, which completed a flyby of the Moon in 1959. However, it was the first-even unmanned mission to the Moon that was the fastest. Credit: CNSA/SASTIND/Xinhua/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer ![]() Mosaic of the Chang’e-3 moon lander and the lunar surface taken by the Yutu moon rover. It was therefore the fastest of the Chang’e missions, taking 4 days, 12 hours, and 23 minutes to reach the Moon before deplyoing its lander to the lunar surface. 1st, 2013 at 17:30 UTC and arrived in Lunar orbit on December 6th at 9:53 UTC. More recently, Chang’e 3 probe and lander launched on Dec. This was followed up by the Chang’e 2 orbiter, which launched on Oct 1st 2010 and arrived in lunar orbit within 4 days and 16 hours. The mission therefore took five days to cover the distance, using its rocket boosters. The SMART-1 mission is an oddity as it is by far the longest mission to the Moon, the rest of the missions took a matter of days to reach lunar orbit.Ĭhina’s Chang’e-1 mission was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center on October 24th 2007 but sat in Earth orbit til October 31st when it began its transit to the Moon and arrived in lunar orbit on November 5th. The craft used only 82 kg of xenon propellant for the entire mission (ending with a lunar impact in 2006). SMART-1 may have been slow, but it was by far the most fuel efficient. The SMART-1 mission, which relies on ionic propulsion. SMART-1 slowly spiraled out from the Earth to arrive at its destination one year, one month and two weeks later on November 11th, 2004. The ESA’s SMART-1 lunar probe was launched on September 27th, 2003 and used a revolutionary ion engine to propel it to the Moon. The slowest mission to fly to the Moon was actually one of the most advanced technologies to be sent into space. To this end, I’ll give a quick rundown from slowest to fastest flights to Earth’s natural satellite 380,000 km away. ![]() Whether a mission uses a rocket to blast its way there, or a subtle ion engine to slowly edge its payload closer, we have many options open to us when we travel to the Moon in the future. Many missions have arrived in lunar orbit and landed on the lunar surface, but the means of getting there are widely varying. ![]() Let’s review the various missions and methods, and see which offers the most efficient and least time-consuming means of transit. And while some took a very long time, others were astonishingly fast. So how long is the commute from the Earth to the Moon anyway? Human beings and machines have made that trip on several occasions. If we are to make travel to the Moon routine enough to send tourists there, the trip would need to be as short as possible. He then went on to mention that short “sight-seeing” tours to the Moon could be started from these ultimate hotels. Once tourists are taken into Earth orbit, it seems possible that space hotels could be developed for longer stop-overs in space. Back in 2008, Richard Branson outlined his vision for Virgin Galactic’s future. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |