Experts report that a seven-year-old SpaceX rocket stage is on a collision course with the moon. But is that also a problem?
What is going on?
The Falcon 9 rocket from the American space company SpaceX launched the weather satellite Space Climate Observatory in 2015, but the rocket stage did not have enough fuel to return to Earth. Since then, the spacecraft has followed a “slightly chaotic course,” meteorologist Eric Berger reported on the technology site Ars Technica. Where is the course going? The moon.
When does the collision take place?
Space experts estimate that the four-ton piece of space junk is on its way to collide with the moon within weeks at a speed of about 2.58 kilometres per second. Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell (Harvard University) expects the rocket stage to reach the moon on March 4.
We won’t observe the clash from our planet because most of the moon will get in the way. And even if the impact were to happen on “our side” of the moon, it would be a few days after the new moon. On a new moon, the sun and moon are in the same position relative to the Earth, and we cannot see the moon, only its shadow side.
Bill Gray, a data analyst who tracks objects near Earth, emphasizes that it is not yet clear exactly where on the moon the rocket will hit because sunlight can still change the object’s orbit.
“These kinds of unpredictable effects are minimal. But between now and March 4, they will increase,” Gray said. He says it is essential to determine the precise location of the impact so that satellites orbiting the moon can find and photograph the crater.
Can we learn anything from the collision?
Berger also believes that the collision could provide valuable data. According to him, the impact would make it possible to inspect the ground that has risen to the surface due to the rocket’s impact. “We already know what happens when junk hits the Earth,” Berger said, “not much can be learned from that.”
In 2009, the American space agency NASA had already sent a satellite to the moon to search for traces of water in the flying dust. The unmanned rig crashed into crater Cabeus near the south pole. The results showed that there is indeed water on the moon. In addition, according to NASA, there were indications of other intriguing substances. Two plumes of material form, vapour and fine dust and the second of heavier material.
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