Attempt no landings.
January 27, 2012 4:22 PM Subscribe
Reading about Gingrich's plan to mine the moon, I starting wondering: could the orbital stability of the moon be changed if enough mass was transferred to the Earth?
I would expect a heavier Earth, spinning faster than the moon, would cause a leading force which would accelerate the moon along its trajectory, causing it to drift away. But I'm definitely no physicist. On what order of magnitude would the mass have to change to have a catastrophic effect, if possible?
For the sake of argument, let's define catastrophe as doubling the current speed at which the moon is already moving away from the Earth.
I would expect a heavier Earth, spinning faster than the moon, would cause a leading force which would accelerate the moon along its trajectory, causing it to drift away. But I'm definitely no physicist. On what order of magnitude would the mass have to change to have a catastrophic effect, if possible?
For the sake of argument, let's define catastrophe as doubling the current speed at which the moon is already moving away from the Earth.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Looks like it'd crashland on AskMe. -- restless_nomad
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posted by hanoixan at 4:23 PM on January 27, 2012