What if an astronaut was on a space walk and somehow became disattached and ended up on the moon, somehow surviving the impact(lets say with his equipment/spacesuit absorbing the impact).... do you think it would possible to make a huge "HELP" on the moon big enough to see so that astronomers on earth could see it and NASA could send other astronauts to the rescue?
I'm forseeing a Time/Money problem with your answers. But, what if we happened to have a module ready along with a crew?
2007-11-07 08:38:50 · 11 answers · asked by Jansen J 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Or in other words, how big would the letters have to be, in order to be seen from Earth?
If the best telescope on Earth was used, it could see things about 15 feet across, just as a few dots. So that's the minimum size for the width of the strokes in the letters. Better to make them 10 times bigger, just to make sure. And then consider that the best telescope is *not* going to be used to look at the moon -- it's time is too valuable ($1000's per hour). So use more ordinary telescopes, and the letters should be 10 times bigger again. That adds up to 1500 feet for the width of the lines, or 15,000 feet for the height of the letters == about 3 miles per letter, 12 miles for "HELP".
Next problem -- how do you make the letters dark (or light) enough, to stand out from the lunar soil? Did you happen to bring along a big can of white paint?
2007-11-07 08:57:22 · answer #1 · answered by morningfoxnorth 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well first of all the astronaut would have to be on the side of the moon facing the Earth because the moon does not rotate so people on earth can only see one side of it. Secondly, since the moon does not have an atmosphere or cloud cover, it would definitely be possible but the sign would have to be absolutely gigantic. The moon is about the same size as the United States so you're talking about a sign being many miles long and wide in order to be seen from earth.
2007-11-07 16:50:03 · answer #2 · answered by abdiver12 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Even the best space suits which functioned without a single failure on all the lunar surface expeditions during the Apollo program only had a service life of a few hours without recharging. Any big "HELP" large enough to be seen from Earth with any telescope would take perhaps months to complete. Much longer than any astronaut or space suit could last.
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2007-11-07 17:01:41 · answer #3 · answered by ericbryce2 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would have to be a really huge help.
The Hubble can resolve pixels slightly smaller than 100m. If we do an 5x7 dot matrix "Help", the resulting "sign" would have to be 700m tall and some 2000m wide.
Any telescope on Earth pointing at the moon regularly will be some ten times worse. So the sign better be some 5 miles by 7 miles large.
Looks like your astronaut has a hard piece of work ahead. Tell him to get going:
"Andele! Andele! Ariba! Ariba!"
Speedy Gonzales could probably do it. But then, Speedy is the fastest Mouse in Mexico!
2007-11-07 16:50:45 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well, it would really be a matter of luck.
First, building a sign that could be seen by the naked eye would be impossible, it would just have to be HUGE. And, what would he build it out of?
The second possibility is that someone is pointing a huge telescope at the moon and just happens to see the guy. There are a few telescopes on Earth powerful enough to do this, but in general, they are looking for things a lot farther away than the moon.
2007-11-07 16:48:35 · answer #5 · answered by wdmc 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The letters would have to be tens of kilometers in length, regardless of how you made them. This would take some time.
If I was in such a situation I'd see if there was some way I could make a really bright flash of light, wait for sunset, then flash SOS.
Edit: I can think of two science fiction stories where space was used for advertising. Buy Jupiter by Isaac Asimov, and Watch this Space by Arthur C. Clarke.
2007-11-07 17:02:29 · answer #6 · answered by laurahal42 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Perhaps. There is a lot of dust on the moon so he might be able to push it around with his foot, and there is no wind to push it back out of place. But it is hard to manuver in a spacesuit, have to be really really thick, would have to be a full moon to be visible, and would take years. There would have to be a more practical way of getting help. Perhaps if his spacesuit wasn't damaged, he would be able to use his radio, and perhaps a satillite picture might spot him.
2007-11-07 16:46:32 · answer #7 · answered by Casey J 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't know that there would be much impact if he just drifted into the moon...it doesn't really have that much gravity, so he might have to actually try to get there.
It certainly would take a bit of time to make the sign...Each letter would have to be about the size of 4 football fields in order for us to see it here...But it could be done (in theory).
2007-11-07 16:48:03 · answer #8 · answered by abfabmom1 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is a lot of moon rock to pile up to make that sign.
I think he is doomed, unless NASA already knew he was there and new he was in danger.
This is a good one for Jim Lovell.
2007-11-07 16:49:03 · answer #9 · answered by pj therapy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't spread this idea around! Someone like McDonalds will get to hear of it and get to thinking what a prime piece of advertising real estate...
2007-11-07 17:23:27 · answer #10 · answered by the boy from tortuga 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋