What If the Moon Orbited at the Same Height as the ISS?

Re:What If the Moon Orbited at the Same Height as the ISS? by leeoniya on Monday May 19, 2014 @01:06PM (#7768498)

would the moon be able to orbit at its current angular speed / period as it does currently if it was closer and still maintain a constant distance?

i would think it would need to orbit much faster because the gravitational pull would be several fold larger. proportionally if it orbits at 27 days currently, it would need to orbit at (238,000 / (2160/2 + 260)) = 177.6x faster...and that's if gravity effects were linear, which they arent...they're inverse square.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What If the Moon Orbited at the Same Height as the ISS? by falcolas on Monday May 19, 2014 @01:11PM (#7768530)

This was addressed in the article, the new orbit period would be 90 minutes. Scary fast, for the size and distance of the moon.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What If the Moon Orbited at the Same Height as the ISS? by leeoniya on Monday May 19, 2014 @01:15PM (#7768549)

ah, i'll read next time :)

it would likely also distort the earth significantly and tides would become hourly tsunamis.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What If the Moon Orbited at the Same Height as the ISS? by delinka on Monday May 19, 2014 @01:19PM (#7768573)

Likely we'd be 'quake-ridden as well.

edit: terrible, awful grammar

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What If the Moon Orbited at the Same Height as the ISS? by lutorm on Monday May 19, 2014 @01:39PM (#7768677)

You really didn't read the article, did you? ;-)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What If the Moon Orbited at the Same Height as the ISS? by leeoniya on Monday May 19, 2014 @01:43PM (#7768697)

fml, i meant as in "after work"

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What If the Moon Orbited at the Same Height as the ISS? by milesskorpen on Monday May 19, 2014 @01:38PM (#7768671)

... which is what the whole article is about.

[ Parent | on HN ]