We may think of the space around Earth as a completely desolate void, but nothing could be further from the truth. Surrounding the Earth there are thousands of space junk debris that orbit around us without direction or destination. Among them is the Falcon 9 rocket launched in 2015 by SpaceX and is now on its way to impact the Moon. It is the first controlled impact against the Moon of a human rocket.
In 2015, the company led by Elon Musk launched the Falcon 9 whose mission was to place the NOAA Deep Space Climate Observatory in orbit. But after completing his mission, the rocket was stranded in the gravitational fields without fuel to return to Earth. Since then it has been wandering aimlessly fluctuating between the gravitational interactions of the Sun, Earth and Moon.
Following a chaotic path, Falcon 9 was left stranded in high Earth orbit. «It’s been dead, just following the laws of gravity,» says Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
An unintended impact
Bill Gray, responsible for the Project Pluto software used to track Near-Earth Objects, became aware of the disappearance of the Falcon 9 and called on astrophysicists around the world to trace the trajectory of the abandoned SpaceX rocket. believes that it is heading directly towards the far side of the Moon where it will probably impact on March 4.
With this it would become the first unintentional and controlled impact that we have noticed. The rocket will explode after making contact with the moon, leaving a small artificial crater in its place.
«Over the decades, there have been perhaps 50 large objects that we have totally lost track of. This may have happened many times before, we just didn’t realize it. This would be the first confirmed case,» says Professor McDowell .
The crater caused by Falcon 9 will not be large, it will barely leave a trace of its origin. But the case opens a debate on space debris that so far has not caused major complications. However, if we continue to send ships, there could be problems in the future from space pollution.
«If we go into the future where there are cities and bases on the moon, we want to know what’s out there. It’s much easier to organize when there’s slow traffic in space, rather than waiting until it’s a problem,» says McDowell.
The SpaceX rocket is expected to continue its chaotic trajectory that responds to gravitational interactions, until it impacts with the Moon in March. In addition, it is known that due to the mass of the ship, it should impact the Moon at a speed of around 2.58 kilometers per second.
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