Author: Róża Chojnacka

Many people consider the Moon as a romantic celestial object, whereas the astronomers say it disturbs them, because the observations require the sky, which is as dark, as possible.

In the past, the Moon was believed to influence human behaviour. During the full moon, many cultures set up special celebrations. The ancient used many God names to call the Moon: Diana, Luna, Selene, Cyntia. The word "somnabulism" described firstly the madness of human mind. The animal howling was connected with the Moon, too.

We have to remember that such objects, as compass, matches or umbrella are completely useless on the Moon. It does not have an atmosphere, which could protect its surface, so we can explore it very deeply even from Earth. Our eyes are able to recognize such details, as lunar "seas" - huge, flat and dark areas in a round shape. With even the smallest telescope we can follow the peaks of mountains and various craters. What is more, the Moon is very close to our planet, which makes a possibility to watch the flatlands, such as "Mare Nectaris", "Mare Tranquilitatis" or "Oceanus Procellarum". The geologists find there a paradise, because all the rocks are visible, without any plants or soil. It is not a mistake that the idiom "lunar landscape" describes a dead, empty area. This is how the Moon looks like.

Lunar phases

The term „phase” specifies the part of the Moon that is lighted by the Sun. It always illuminates exactly a half of it (except for eclipses), but from Earth, it is visible under different angles caused by different location of those objects.

The phases had been given the following names:

1. Dark Moon (1 in the picture) – the area that is turned to Earth is not illuminated.
2. First Quarter (3)
3. Full Moon (5) – all the area turned to Earth is illuminated.
4. Last Quarter (7).

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Lunar eclipse

A lunar eclipse appears, when the Sun, the Earth, and the full Moon (in this order) lie exactly on the same line. Our satellite goes into the shadow made by our planet and becomes dark, but not completely. It is still illuminated by the light refracted in the Earth atmosphere. The clouds, sin and air pollution makes it red.

2000 years ago during the lunar eclipse, the ancient Greek noticed a round Earth shadow on the Moon surface for the first time. Arystoteles pointed out that this is a proof of the spherical shape of our planet. The first quite exact measurement of the Earth diameter was made by the Greek astronomer, Erastotenes.

It is realtively easy to see a lunar eclipse. It is visible in every place, where we can see the Moon. What is more, it lasts much longer.

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Solar eclipse

A solar eclipse takes place, when the Sun, the Moon and the Earth (in this order) lie exactly on the same line. The Moon orbit is elliptical and if it is closer to our planet, we see a total eclipse, where the Sun is completely obscured. Our satellite seems to be bigger than our star and stops the light coming to us. The event lasts only a few minutes and can be observed only in a tiny, round area moving at the speed of 1,700 km/h.

A total eclipse is an unforgettable event. During it, the sky and the landscape becomes dark and in the sky, the air is getting colder there are visible stars in planet, all in the day! In the ancient times the eclipses were considered to cause disasters. Nowadays, both professionals and amateurs travel around the world to see a total eclipse and collect new data about this phenomenon. The table below shows the total eclipses that will be seen in the next few years:

Date	Time	Visible in
8.1.2008	02:27	North America, Europe, Asia.
7.22.2009	06:39	India, China, The Pacific	The longest eclipse of 21. century
7.11.2010	05:20	North America
11.13.2012	04:02	Australia, New Zealand, North America, South Pacific
3.20.2015	02:47	The Atlantic, England, Norway, The North Pole (!!!)

On the wider area, there is visible a partial eclipse. It can occur even, when the Moon is not close enought to Earth to obscure its disk.

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Bombarding

The main factors that cause the erosion of the Moon are meteoroids, small sand to boulder-sized particles of rock or metal that hit the surface of it at speed 113,000 km/h. Sometimes, even bigger objects destroy that landscape. However, the total effect caused by them is approximately 10,000 times weaker than water and air on Earth. During the period of 1 million years, they remove only 1-milimeter deep part of ground. It means that the first human footprint made by Neil Armstrong will be visible as perfectly, as it was in 1969 in the day it was made.

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Occultation, tides, libration

These three terms describe another effects connected with Moon. However, it is not my goal to write an extremely-logn essay, but to encourage the readers to look for the answer and information. There must be some mystery, mustn't there? Take a look at Wikipedia or one of the astronomical books. By the way, such word are very useful when solving crosswords.

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Helium-3: valuable energy source from the Moon

The energy on Earth is not infinitive. One day, our resources of petrol and coal will be exhausted. However, we still have the Moon! This is not a science-fiction vision, but a real challenge to gain control over the energetic resources on it. Helium-3, a kind of fuel used to fill the baloons, is a source of clean energy - combining helium-3 and deuterium produces a huge amount of heat. What is more, there is no radiation and in this way this source of energy is more clean than the nuclear fusion. Lawrence Taylor from American Institute of Planetary Science estimated that only 25 tons of helium-3 could give enought power for the USA for one year. Indian scientist A.P.J Abdul Kalam thinks that on the Moon there is 10 times more energy in helium-3 than on Earth in all the resources. Today, the companies from China and Russia fight against each other to control the resource supplies. But they will run out in this century and the next possible place, where the power could be provides from, is the space. The strongest countries are preparing to the next round of this challenge.

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Vision for Space Exploration

The Vision for Space Exploration is the United States space policy announced on January 14, 2004 by U.S. President George W. Bush. It is seen as a response to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the state of human spaceflight at NASA, and a way to regain public enthusiasm for space exploration.
The Vision calls for the space program to:

• Complete the International Space Station by 2010
• Retire the Space Shuttle by 2010
• Develop the Orion spacecraft (formerly known as the Crew Exploration Vehicle) by 2008, and conduct its first human spaceflight mission by 2014
• Develop Shuttle Derived Launch Vehicles
• Explore the Moon with robotic spacecraft missions by 2008 and crewed missions by 2020
• Explore Mars and other destinations with robotic and crewed missions

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