Re: How high the Moon?

Doug Wickstrom <nimshubur@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> jdnicoll@xxxxxxxxx (James Nicoll) wrote:
>> Nancy Lebovitz <nancyl@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> James Nicoll <jdnicoll@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>> Karl Johanson <karljohanson@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>> "Doug Wickstrom" <nimshubur@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>>> ames@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Andrew Stephenson) wrote:
>>>>>>> It also happens to be an exceptionally close and bright Moon,
>>>>>>> so all you selenophiles should get on out there and start
>>>>>>> howling.

Indeed, the moon is currently closer to earth than Mars *ever* gets.

>>>>>> It's been snowing more-or-less continuously for the last 40
>>>>>> hours. I don't think I'm going to see it.

>>>>> I'd love to see the moon covered in snow.

It would be a lot brighter, that's for sure. Few people know that the
moon is actually about the color of charcoal. It only looks bright
because there's nothing brighter nearby to compare it to. A snow-
covered full moon would make the outdoors about as bright as a
well-lit office.

>>>> Assume a way to land enough volatiles on the Moon to temporarily
>>>> terraform it without the undesirable side-effect of flatlining
>>>> civilization on Earth* -- would the moon have ice caps thanks to
>>>> its low obliquity ...

There's some evidence that the moon does have (small) ice caps.
Nobody has ever seen them since they're only in places where the
sun never shines.

>>> How could landing a reasonable layer of volatiles on the Moon
>>> flatline Earthly civilization? I assume the mass would be trivial
>>> compared to that of the Moon, and I can't see what you could do
>>> with the Moon that doesn't affect the tides that would be a
>>> problem.

While not flatlining civilization, a much brighter moon could screw
up various animals' circadian rhythms, possible leading to a wave
of extinctions.

>> The problem is ejecta. Objects impacting the Moon tend to hit
>> at speeds much higher than the lunar escape velocity and a fair
>> fraction of the materials blasted off the Moon ends up hitting
>> the Earth.

True, but the snow layer need only be a few centimeters deep (though
it wouldn't last long). And much of the ejecta wouldn't reach earth
for years. I would avoid hanging out in low earth orbit for next few
decades, however.

> Anyway, there's always the other side.

That doesn't help. The moon's gravity send ejecta in all directions,
unless it's going *far* faster than lunar escape velocity, which
isn't likely.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.
.

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