Can the moon be propelled?

Question

read all first please

Ok I read an article that once pulled out of the gravity of the sun and the earth we could propel the moon through the universe, it is an interesting theory, I origionally thought stupid, but now I think it would be interesting to find out if it would be possible to make a sort of space colony to survive and thrive long after earth is destroyed.

sounds like an interesting start to a book.

no garbage please just thoughts and practicle ideas.

Answer 1

Sounds like what happened in the end of the book "Last and First Men"

heres the whole book

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601101...

In this book they propel Neptune (which is conceived to have a solid surface) closer to the sun as it dims.

However, this book is entirely outlandish and draws off physical principals which are completely unfounded.

The truth of the matter is that the most energy you can get out of mass is an matter-antimatter annihilation and this is the only feasible source of energy that could move an entire planet. However, it takes a lot of energy just to produce the antimatter and you still would have to annihilate your planet bit by bit until nothing was left to keep it moving around system to system.

Also, why move an entire planet when you only need to move what need be moved? A large spaceship with plenty of spare material and a sufficient amount of fuel would be a much better solution since it would require a billionth of the energy to move around.

Answer 2

Can the moon be propelled?  Well, here is ALL the information you need to know about that subject:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1999

Okay, I am kind of kidding with that link.  But it was a great old show in which the premise was the moon being hurled out into deep space.

But seriously, I would think YES.  The moon could be propelled.  But this would be "in theory" only, as I cannot imagine any way that we could make it happen.  But suppose you could create the necessary energy to move it out of Earth's orbit... then you could use further explosions or bursts of energy to steer it.  After that, it would just keep going, wouldn't it?

I guess I basically think that if you could build rocket boosters that were big enough and powerful enough then you could do it.

Answer 3

The energy required to "propel" the Moon would make it totally impractical !!!

Mankind does not have the capability to harness that amount of energy, nor are we likely to in the future.

Interesting computations Unstable!

Answer 4

wow, At first i thought that it was a g*y question, but then I got to the colony part, and that is where I think its pretty kewl.

but a couple probs i see

1. and most notable, how the heel we going to get it out of our gravitational pull.  Answer, technology will let us soon enough

2. and the biggest prob, what can we do to make sure it doesnt get sucked in by something elses gravitational pull, black hole, a big star?  that is a major prob, unless we can defeat gravity.

Answer 5

The idea is flawed because of the following reasons:

(1) The moon has no atmosphere.  Building and sustaining a colony on the moon (whether it moves or not) would be dead expensive.

(2) There isn't enough water as well.

(3) The Moon weighs (estimated) about 7.3477x 10^22 Kg.  You would need a pretty significant propulsion system to be able to control it's directions - now because the Moon is largely spheriodical, in theory, you need 6 sets of engines to have full directional control of the Moon's movement using your installed propulsion system.  And all this is just for moving the Moon - you'd probably need stronger engines than just moving 7.3477x10^22 kg of mass, because if the Moon happens to fall under the gravity influence of any other astronomical objects, like the Sun and other massive planets like Jupiter, you'd have to have more engine power to combat the gravity effects of these bodies.  Our current most powerful rocket engine is called the M-1 engine that gives us about 1.5 million pounds force (1 pound force is about 4.4482216152605 N ).  To move the Moon away from Earth's influence would need about 73.477 x10^22 N or about 16.5 x 10^22 of these engines.  The engine is approximately about 2 man's height in terms of diameter so that would occupy about an area of Pix1.8^2 square meters - approximately 10 square meters.  you know you need 6 sets of them - so altogether you'd need a surface area of approximately

4.40862 x 10^25 square meters.

The moon has a surface area estimated about 38 million square kilometers converting that to square meters we get about 38 x 10^12 square meters.

Your rockets are going to occupy more space than there is available on the surface of the moon.

You may want to revisit this idea again when more powerful engines are available.

Answer 6

Yes.

Answer 7

Simply jamming a gargantuan rocket on the moon might work, but more likely it would cause it to crumble from the force.  Plus the fuel consumption would be enormous.  If you could create another object with a similar mass as the moon (a piece of the destroyed earth?)  you could get the two objects to satellite around each other like a bola.  You could use this energy to propel both of them though space in the same way a slinky goes down the steps.  You could steer the whole thing with two smaller satellites orbiting each "moon", slight adjustments to their orbit could cause the axis of the two "moons" to tilt.  It would be slow, and the turn radius would be the size of a solar system, but it might work.  

Okay, it won't work.  But the idea is cool right?

Answer 8

Yes, it would be possible, per se. Given enough energy, manpower, and resources, anything could be possible. Even a little rocket firing on the moon moves it a little bit, technically.

But yes, it is impracticable. Currently, our technology is not nearly up to the task. However, our technology is almost up to the task of making space colonies and taking ships on (long) journey's out of the Solar System.

Moving the moon would really upset the tides and other phenomena on Earth. Its loss would create global cataclysms. The radiant energy of conventional rockets moving the moon would be enough to make half the moon uninhabitable and cook parts of the surface of the Earth.

Also, there is the case of inertia. When you are in a car and the driver turns sharply, where does anything not secured go. The moon is massive. Any attempt to push it would make it very unstable. It is not a ship built for acceleration and turns. If it didn't break up, heat generated inside the moon from inertial stresses could make it very volcanically active. Something similar happens with a few of Jupiter's moons in even their natural orbits.

Presumably, we would need a new source of power and new means of propulsion. Maybe we cold do something with gravity effects, speaking in a science fiction fashion. If some sort of gravity drive worked with high efficiency, we would just need a lot of power (more than the total output of all energy ever harnessed by man in the entirety of its history).

But really, if people were on the moon and the Earth were destroyed, the safest, simplest, and cheaper answer would be to just build ships and leave the moon, rather than trying to pilot it.

James P Hogan wrote a book called Inherit the Stars where something similar happens by accident involving Earth's moon. It is a good read, and the subsequent books in the series talk about mega-engineering and gravitic propulsion.