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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 .
The lunar orbit's major axis – the longest diameter of the orbit, joining its nearest and farthest points, the perigee and apogee, respectively – makes one complete revolution every 8.85 Earth years, or 3,232.6054 days, as it rotates slowly in the same direction as the Moon itself (direct motion) – meaning precesses eastward by 360°.
[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 ...
For the past week, an uncrewed lunar lander has been journeying through outer space on a 60-day mission to the moon on behalf of NASA. ... Firefly shares photos of lunar craft in orbit.
The semi-major axis of the geocentric lunar orbit, called the lunar distance, is approximately 400,000 km (250,000 miles or 1.28 light-seconds), comparable to going around Earth 9.5 times. [178] The Moon makes a complete orbit around Earth with respect to the fixed stars, its sidereal period, about once every 27.3 days.
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 ...
Surveyor 3 on the Moon. The first image returned by Luna 3 showed the far side of the Moon. This is a list of robotic space probes that have flown by, impacted, orbited or landed on the Moon for the purpose of lunar exploration, as well as probes launched toward the Moon that failed to reach their target.
Apollo 8's lunar orbit insertion was chronicled with actual recordings in the song "The Other Side", on the 2015 album The Race for Space, by the band Public Service Broadcasting. [124] A documentary film, First to the Moon: The Journey of Apollo 8 was released in 2018.