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A comment on The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Ejecta of Lunar Landers. Parent comment

Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by Delfwood on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @03:27PM (#36049562)
> blowing an engine nearly horizontal to the surface

I doubt that objects put in "orbit" with a periapsis of almost zero (launched from the ground) would stay in flight for too long.

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Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by moffkalast on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @05:28PM (#36051087)
Well lunar gravity varies a huge amount by location, it may be possible for some of it to somehow end up in actual orbits, especially when it's intentionally done so.
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Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by Robotbeat on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @05:56PM (#36051344)
But by the same token, those orbits will be unstable and the particles will quickly lithobrake.
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Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by moffkalast on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @07:35PM (#36052170)
Well probably, but they could also stay there perpetually.
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Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by Robotbeat on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @07:46PM (#36052240)
No, as light pressure will push them out of frozen orbits.
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Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by irjustin on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @02:18AM (#36054723)
How long would that take?!
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Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by Robotbeat on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @12:01PM (#36059970)
Not long.
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Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by kabdib on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @07:54PM (#36052300)
My understanding was that those variations in gravity ("mascons") rendered stable lunar orbits next to impossible. On Apollo missions, orbits degraded by many kilometers over the course of just a few days.
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Re:The Damage to Lunar Orbiting Spacecraft Caused by the Eje... by neffo on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @01:26AM (#36054400)
Interestingly, a researcher looking for probable impact sites found Apollo 11's ascent module could potentially still be in orbit. (Though, it's probably not.)

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-apollo-ascent-stage-orbiting-m...

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