Preparing for a Walk on the Moon

Reported October 2008

GREENBELT, MD. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The last time man walked on the moon was in 1972. Now, NASA is planning to re-visit the moon by the year 2020 -- but a shocking discovery about Earth's companion may put a hold on those plans.

Our moon looks calm and rather dull, and nothing ever seems to change. Even an astronaut’s footprint lasts millions of years; but now, space scientists have learned something on the moon does change -- and it’s quite shocking.

"The surface of the moon can become electrified from charged particles in the surrounding space environment," Timothy Stubbs, Ph.D., a space scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told Ivanhoe.

This electric event happens once a month when the moon passes through the earth’s magnetotail. A magnetotail is caused when the highly-charged particles of the solar wind zoom past the earth and mix with earth’s magnetic field, creating a long “tail” that extends into the moon's orbit.

"The moon is actually sitting in a sea of charged particles," Dr. Stubbs said.

Each month, the moon enters the magnetotail for six days. As it crosses inside the magnetotail, the moon’s surface becomes highly charged. If astronauts walked across the charged surface, they might feel a static shock -- just like walking across a carpet and then touching a door knob. It' not a deadly shock, but a powerful zap! It’s easy to know when the moon is passing through the earth’s magnetotail -- just look for a full moon.

No astronaut has ever landed on a charged-up full moon to know exactly what happens, so learning more now will help astronauts in the future.

"These sorts of things that affect astronauts are things that we’d like to investigate before we return to the moon," Dr. Stubbs said.

When NASA returns to the moon, scientists plan to establish an outpost for long-term moon exploration -- and they plan to also explore the magnetotail.

The American Astronomical Society and the American Geophysical Union contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Dr. Timothy J. Stubbs
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
(301) 286-1524
Timothy.J.Stubbs@nasa.gov

Steve Maran
American Astronomical Society
(202) 328-2010
http://www.aas.org
steve.maran@aas.org

Peter Weiss
American Geophysical Union
(800) 966-2481
http://www.agu.org
pweiss@agu.org

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The last time man walked on the moon was in 1972. Now, NASA is planning to re-visit the moon by the year 2020 -- but a shocking discovery about Earth's companion may put a hold on those plans.