Foot prints left by the Astronauts on the Moon surface?

Question

Do the foot prints left behind by the Astronauts on the Moon's surface remain there forever and have the Astronauts who have undertaken space mission to the Moon after Apollo 11 mission been able to locate the area and notice the foot prints?

Answer 1

The foot prints will remain embedded in the lunar dust for as long as the moon the lasts or struck by a meteor; and no, the post-Apollo 11 missions landed on other areas of the lunar surface, and it would be almost impossible to land exactly in the same spot that Apollo 11 did.....

Answer 2

We've never made two moon landings to the same area. We have much more to learn by landing somewhere else.

No, the footprints don't last forever. Nothing does. The reason why the astronauts could make footprints at all is that there is dust, and as more space dust arrives, it will tend to soften, blur, and fill in those footprints.

Unless the space dust is really big, in which case, we call it a meteorite fall. In that case, there can be splashing. You've noticed that the moon surface is quite full of pockmarks and craters?

The tides on Earth are caused by the moon's gravity. The tidal forces also cause earthquakes. However, the Earth is much larger than the moon, and the distance from the Earth to the moon is the same as from the moon to the Earth, so the tidal forces on the moon are MUCH more significant. There are moonquakes all the time. When these quakes hit, whether they be so minor as to be called vibrations, or they are major shock waves, it's going to scatter dust and "soften, blur, and fill in" those footprints.

Did Alan Shepard fill in his divot? That's an important part of golf etiquette, isn't it?

Answer 3

First, the footprints should remain unless a meteor hits and messes them up.

Barring any such event, they'll be there a million years from now.

Second, I don't think any of the Apollo missions visited the same site, so while the landing sites could have easily been located they would not have seen them close up.

One of the Apollo missions (I think it was 14) went to one of the unmanned Surveyor probes and the astronauts collected some of the components to take back to earth to see how well they had survived several years on the moon.

Answer 4

as someone else said no two missions landed near each other so they never found each other's footprints.

and the prints will stay there for quite a while. but there is a fairly steady barrage of micro meteorites hitting the moon's surface; someone incorrectly assumed that the moon's surface was dusty from space dust, actually it was a rocky surface but over the billions of years these micrometeorites have eroded the surface into a fine dust. eventually they will wipe out the footprints, but it will take quite a while unless a large impact happens near them.

Answer 5

Prints will stay essentially forever. The succeeding astronauts did not have time to look for 11's landing area. They were busy with their own missions.

Answer 6

you know rohan, there was a song by the fixx - one thing leads to another.

just like this one lie led to another and that to another and so on.

you're talking about the footprints left behind by astronauts on the moon as if they positively landed there. you know nasa itself admits that surviving for even one half hour on the moon even during "morning" time there is virtually impossible. they say this because it's virtually impossible to design a space suit that protects the astronaut's life during their total vacuum sojourn and at the same time afford them enough flexibility to hop and jump.

you can check with nasa's web pages at nasa.gov under the heading eva.

there's not much in believing something said as there's in understanding it.

Answer 7

There is no atmosphere on the moon therefore no wind can disturb the prints, unless there are hit by meteorites they will be there for all time. I don't whether or any previous site has been revisited.

Answer 8

They'll stay there until some object hits the surface and stirs things up. With no atmosphere the is no wind or rain to disturb the prints. I don't know of other missions, sorry.

Answer 9

You are not to worry of the foot prints when its gone we shall always have it in human history, just like a bible so it will not be forgoten?

Answer 10

They'll still stay there, there's no atmosphere and therefore no wind or other disturbances to erase them.