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Low lunar orbit (LLO) is an orbit below 100 km (62 mi) altitude. These have a period of about 2 hours. [ 2 ] They are of particular interest in the exploration of the Moon , but suffer from gravitational perturbations that make most unstable, and leave only a few orbital trajectories possible for indefinite frozen orbits .
Orbital inclination—the Moon's orbit is inclined by 5.14° to the ecliptic. This shows the specific configuration at major northern lunistice. At such times, the Earth's north pole is toward the Moon and the Moon is north of the ecliptic. The mean inclination of the lunar orbit to the ecliptic plane is 5.145°.
The Moon's orbit is subtly perturbed by the Sun and Earth in many small, complex and interacting ways. For example, the plane of the Moon's orbit gradually rotates once every 18.61 years, [180] which affects other aspects of lunar motion. These follow-on effects are mathematically described by Cassini's laws.
[19] [20] Planned orbit for the NASA Lunar Gateway in circa 2024, as a highly-elliptical seven-day near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon, which would bring the small space station within 3,000 kilometers (1,900 mi) of the lunar north pole at closest approach and as far away as 70,000 kilometers (43,000 mi) over the lunar south pole. [21 ...
A lunar day lasts just over 29 days, ... The same side always faces Earth because the moon takes the same amount of time to complete an orbit of Earth and rotate around its axis: ...
The spacecraft is expected to first enter an orbit around Earth before transferring to a lunar orbit and ultimately descending to the surface of the moon. Russia’s last lunar lander , Luna 24 ...
A lunar node is either of the two orbital nodes of the Moon, that is, the two points at which the orbit of the Moon intersects the ecliptic. The ascending (or north) node is where the Moon moves into the northern ecliptic hemisphere, while the descending (or south) node is where the Moon enters the southern ecliptic hemisphere.
After it reaches lunar orbit, the uncrewed craft will land near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium – a 300-mile-wide basin in the northeast quadrant of the moon's near ...