Lunar Flyby • Hacker News Board

Re: Lunar Flyby

#231

Post by willis936 » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC

anlsh wrote: post #143

grishka wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why does this not happen to planets themselves in relation to the sun?

I think the explanation is wrong: wikipedia offers a completely different explanation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking . Planets can become tidally locked to the sun- mercury is. Probably the timescale required for the other planets is just much longer EDIT: Apparently mercury isn't actually tidally locked to the sun, TIL

I don't see how my ELI5 disagrees with the wikipedia article.

Re: Lunar Flyby

#232

Post by Gagarin1917 » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

philistine wrote: post #214

sgt wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where can we see that in high quality? Generally if I look at YouTube it's compressed and poor quality.

They never shot 16mm film on the moon. They had weird tv cameras and took photos in 35mm.

Sure they did. Here’s some footage:

https://youtu.be/7o3Oi9JWsyM

Re: Lunar Flyby

#233

Post by nirav72 » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

SilverElfin wrote: post #51

SegfaultSeagull wrote: post #47

Can someone ELI5 how it is one side of the moon is never seen on Earth? The moon orbits and also rotates, does it not?

Yes and its rotation is synchronized to earth. See the animation at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking

thanks, that's probably the best animation I've seen explaining a tidal locked moon.

Re: Lunar Flyby

#234

Post by pavon » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

jameslk wrote: post #5

ranger207 wrote: post #2

I have to admit, I've been an Artemis hater ($4 billion per launch lol) but the experience of watching people go back around the Moon has been incredibly inspiring, and it proves to me that maybe we can still do hard things

> $4 billion per launch lol The US spends almost that much on net debt interest each day (~$3 billion/day[0]). Not that adding to the debt helps at all, but the old proverb about being penny wise and pound foolish seems relevant 0. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61951

We spend more on debt interest than we spend on the military or anything really other than social security. That isn't a useful comparison anymore.

Re: Lunar Flyby

#235

Post by system2 » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 5:23 PM UTC

Fourier864 wrote: post #55

system2 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Ok I realize you're making a point, but 10 launches a day comes out to about $15 trillion a year, that's like half of the US GDP

Not as much, but we were okay to spend $12T on the Iraq war.

Re: Lunar Flyby

#236

Post by pavon » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 6:01 PM UTC

voidUpdate wrote: post #164

Some of these photos look so "fake". Maybe because of how they are lit or the lack of atmospheric distortion, they don't quite looks real (I'm not disputing that they are authentic, they just look a bit weird)

Yeah, it is common for pictures in space to look like simplistic raytraced renderings because the lighting and shadows are so sharp, lacking atmospheric diffusion and scattering.

Re: Lunar Flyby

#237

Post by pierrec » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 6:07 PM UTC

soci wrote: post #224

We already have images from the far side of the moon since the 2009's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter [1]. In theory, LRO is currently flying at lower orbit than Artemis I mission [2]. Shouldn't the LRO images be better? Maybe NASA has not disclosed all images? Honest question: why the hype with these pictures? [1] https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4109 [2] Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) -> ~50 km vs. Artemis I -> ~129 km

They are not shy about publishing LRO data. It looks like this (one for each LRO camera, narrow angle then wide angle):

https://data.lroc.im-ldi.com/lroc/view_lroc/LRO-L-LROC-2-EDR...

Feel free to assemble these into nice composites or 3D renders.

Re: Lunar Flyby

#238

Post by HALtheWise » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 6:35 PM UTC

Tangentially related, but there's a bunch of extremely high-resolution panorama images from the Apollo landings available at this site, for anyone who enjoys this sort of thing. https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollopanoramas/

Re: Lunar Flyby

#239

Post by selfmodruntime » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 7:02 PM UTC

bregma wrote: post #189

selfmodruntime wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree 100%. Seeing the picture of the backside of the moon with the earth in view really drove home that the moon really is just a large rock.

> backside of the moon I think perhaps you mean the far side of the moon. The "backside" of the moon implies a large graben stretching almost from pole to pole, and I have seen no evidence of such a geological formation in any photos.

thanks, I audibly laughed

Re: Lunar Flyby

#240

Post by html5cat » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 7:11 PM UTC

suzzer99 wrote: post #131

html5cat wrote: post #130

It's a bit tricky to navigate between all the amazing photos NASA Artemis crew captured so I vibe coded (Codex) a simple site with full screen full res view and arrow navigation: https://nasa.puma.tech feedback welcome

That's awesome. Since you asked for feedback, can you vibecode up a thumbnail view? Also I see a bunch more images on the NASA site. How are you pulling them?

yeah, this was a one time sync. which source do you prefer for full list? and for thumbnail view, would you like a T shortcut or any other button?