The least we could do is build something cool up there like a space station or something.
2007-09-14 01:36:07 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
SOHO is at L1.
JWST will be launched to L2 soon.
There may be other missions already at Lagrange points, but those were just the first 2 that came to mind.
2007-09-14 02:03:45 · answer #1 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 7⤊ 0⤋
Actually we are using one Lagrange point right now, the L1 point to be exact. Several satellites such as SOHO who watch the Sun for flares and coronal mass ejections circle it right now. This point is about a 1.5 million miles away from the Sunward side of the Earth. A satellite there provides enough warning for power grid and satellite operators to power down satellites and reduce the current in power grids to protect them from destruction due to solar flares. But you're correct, Lagrange points can be very useful and a good place to put a space station in cislunar space. Those would be the L4 and L5 positions 60 degrees ahead and behind the moon. The combined gravity fields of the Earth and the Moon would act to keep the space station there with little or no need for it to use a propulsion system.
2007-09-14 10:05:07 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I've read something about it before in magazine articles and I posed a similar question a couple of weeks ago. NASA would like to use them as technology permits. Lagrange point 2 on the far side of the Moon would be a perfect place for a Space Station or telescope. SEE PICTURE: L2
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lagrange_points.jpg
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I think that would also be a cool place to be stationed. The Moon would be between you and the Earth. I'll bet it's an awesome sight.
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Eric.
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2007-09-14 10:08:18 · answer #3 · answered by ericbryce2 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It would cost many billions of dollars even to get there let alone build a space station there.
For a start we would have to achieve escape velocity from the Earth because the those points are in orbit about the sun not the Earth. They are just in the same solar orbit that Earth is in.
2007-09-14 08:44:52 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Have them? It´s not like we´re paying rent for them or anything... But we do use them and we will use them alot more in the future. And not just the ones in the earths vicinity. It we built a sunblocker at HelioVenutian L1 that is big enough we could cool Venus down enough for the water in Venus atmosphere to condense. When that happens the water would begin to gobble up the CO2 int the atmosphere at an explosive rate turning Venus into a second earth.
2007-09-14 14:05:13 · answer #5 · answered by DrAnders_pHd 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are serious plans to put some demanding satellite experiments in the Lagrange points.
2007-09-14 08:41:37 · answer #6 · answered by Thomas M 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We DO use them. There are several satellites orbiting around the L1 point, including SOHO.
2007-09-14 10:39:27 · answer #7 · answered by eri 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Eventually we will. Right now, we don't have the technological capability to do that. Wait 50 years.
2007-09-14 09:17:32 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋