LIttle things complicate humans’ attempts to explore places other than the earth. Here’s a study about a small example: “The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Ejecta of Lunar Landers,” Philip T. Metzger, James G. Mantovani, arXiv.2305.12234, 2023. The authors explain: “This manuscript analyzes lunar lander soil erosion models and trajectory models to […]
The South China Morning Post reports, on January 12, 2022, that “China has built an artificial moon that simulates low-gravity conditions on Earth“. The report begins: China has built a research facility that simulates the low-gravity environment on the moon – and it was inspired by experiments using magnets to levitate a frog. Further details: […]
On a broad, bright, moonlit* night would you expect outdoor crime rates to be higher or lower than on an overcast night with little or no moonlight? Numerous investigations have shown that, as a general rule, increasing environmental light levels can lead to a decrease in outdoor crime rates. By extension then, one might think […]
History has shown* that astronauts, or more accurately lunarnauts, often like to skip about when they’re on the Moon. But, fun though it might seem, is skipping (in reduced gravity situations) an efficient way to get around? Research teams from the Laboratory of Physiomechanics of Locomotion, Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Italy, […]