Will it require more, less, or the same amount of energy to lift a spaceship off the Earth than the Moon?

Question

If humans ever build a permanent base on the Moon, spaceships will fly back and forth carrying cargo and people. Will it require more energy, less energy or the same amount of energy to lift a spaceship off the Earth than to lift the same ship off the Moon? Explain.

I believe it's because :::


It would require more energy to lift a spaceship off the Earth than to lift the same ship off the Moon. This is because the Moon has no atmosphere but the Earth does. Because the Moon has so little gravitational attraction, it cannot retain its tenuous atmosphere. Also, the Moon rotates very slowly and has a small iron core. Combining these two elements causes the Moon to not have a strong magnetic field; the Earth does.


Am I right?

So Basically:::

It would require more energy to lift a spaceship off the Earth than to lift the same ship off the Moon. This is because the Moon has no atmosphere but the Earth does. Because the Moon has so little gravitational attraction, it cannot retain its tenuous atmosphere. The Moon also has no gravity; the Earth does. The escape velocity is much lower on the Moon than on the Earth as well. This is because of the gravitational pull which is determined by the mass of the object. Also, the Moon rotates very slowly and has a small iron core. Combining these two elements, the Moon does not have a strong magnetic field; the Earth does. Because the Earth has an atmosphere, gravity, a higher escape velocity, and rotates faster creating a strong magnetic field than the Moon, more energy would be necessary to lift a spaceship from the Earth and much less on the Moon.

Answer 1

Well it will definitely require much less energy, so yes you are right. The atmosphere part is certainly true. The main total reason is that the escape velocity is much lower on the moon than on earth. That is due to gravitational pull (determined by the mass of the object), yes the atmosphere does come into it too although to a lesser extent. The real reason NASA would want to launch missions from the moon to other planets is that it would cost MUCH less. If we can effectively harvest hydrogen on the moon, we could create fuel to launch missions for far less :_)

Answer 2

Basically yes, although magnetic fields really don't affect rocket launches. Gravity has a much stronger pull than the Earth's magnetic field.

The big problem is, how do you get the stuff up to the Moon in the first place? Any fuel you use has to be launched from Earth to the Moon. If you're going to use the Moon for raw materials, all of your mining and processing equipment has to be brough up from Earth as well.

I'm not saying it's impossible ... it's very difficult at the moment, and we have more pressing concerns on Earth right now. Someday, though...

Answer 3

The booster rocket used to launch all the Apollo missions to the Moon was the legendary Saturn V which produced 7.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. The assent stage of each Lunar Module ("LM"), which propelled the craft off the moon and back up to orbit for rendevous with the orbiting Command Module, had a liftoff thrust equal to about 3,500 pounds.

Thus, this illustrates pretty vividly how different the thrust requirements are for launching from the surface of the moon and from the surface of the earth.

Answer 4

It takes less energy to launch from the moon than from the earth. The main reason for this is that there is a difference between mass and weight.

On the earth, a rocket with a mass of one million pounds also weighs one million pounds, and it takes a force F to lift it. On the moon the same rocket weighs about 168 thousand pounds, so, using the same type of fuel and engine, only one 6th the force is needed to lift it. (The inertia consideration is a moot point, because, though the rocket fuel weighs less, it's inertia is the same (because it depends on mass, not weight), and the exhaust velocity is the same, as well--more, actucally because there is no atmosphere on the moon to impede it).

To get on lunar orbit would take less force as well, because lunar orbital velocity is less than earth orbit velocity.

All in all it takes much less energy to get on lunar orbit or to escape from the moon as it does from the earth.

Interestingly, it takes less energy to send a probe to a landing on Mars than it does to land on the moon. Why? Because the atmosphere of Mars assists in braking maneuvers, all the way to a landing. It doesn't take much more energy to get to Mars in the first place than to get to the moon, and landing on the former is much easier, due to the atmosphere of Mars.

Answer 5

Fist of all, it is not the way interplanetary return and forth works. You launch your motor vehicle right into a flow orbit that's an ellipse that's tangential to the orbits of the two Earth and Mars. You time the launch so as that the motor vehicle reaches the orbit of Mars on a similar time and place that Mars itself does. it is an elliptical orbit this is totally between the orbits of Earth and Mars, and would not come everywhere close to the sunlight. Your 2d question seems to be extra approximately looking a quickly line by using area between the Earth and Mars, that's extremely not functional for many motives, maximum mandatory of that's that it is going to require vast skill. whether you are able to _look_ in a quickly line from Earth to Mars in basic terms approximately each and all of the time, aside from a incredibly short era whilst Mars is on the some distance ingredient of the sunlight. How close you are able to carry on with Mars whilst it passes at the back of the sunlight relies upon on the prevalent and placement of your telescope. We mechanically watch planets pass at the back of the sunlight with the SOHO image voltaic observatory satellite tv for pc, whilst Mars is in basic terms out of sight for some days, if in any respect.

Answer 6

the moon has one sixth of the gravity of the earth, then you would need one sixth of the energy to escape the moon's gravitational pull as opposed to earth's

Answer 7

not necessary true - depending what technology we are using. assuming is we use artificial gravity technology to neutralize earth gravity, you may find planets with stonger gravity may require lesser energy to lift a spaceship off.

Answer 8

depending on what type of craft we're using. using a craft designed to operate on fuel is the least intelligent. we would create a magnetic field so strong that it propels the craft at an infinite rate through space and time..THE GOVMT. HAS TECHNOLOGY FAR SURPASSING WHAT THEY ALLOW US TO KNOW!