Will the Earth's Tail Fry Moon Visitors?

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers working for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission have discovered that the Earth's magnetic tail could be harmful to future astronauts. The moon stays inside Earth's 'magnetotail' for six days every month — during full moon. This can have consequences ranging from lunar 'dust storms' to strong electrostatic discharges, according to one researcher quoted by NASA in 'The Moon and the Magnetotail.' So far, this is pure speculation: no man has been on the moon when the magnetotail hits. As added the same scientist, 'Apollo astronauts never landed on a full moon and they never experienced the magnetotail.' But read more for additional details about how Earth's magnetotail could affect men on the moon."

Comments

Re:If we want to go to the moon

[arivanov]

Oops... Should have read it again before posting. The happy event happens during full moon when it is nicely lit by the sun so the rovers have indeed experienced it and none of them has observed any such wierd things. They were up there for months so I this is mostly likely not the kind of problem to worry about. It is least likely to be even close to the amount of radiation pounding a station will get during a solar storm.

Giant, predictable magnetic distrubance?

[toastee]

Sounds like a great opportunity to harness the energy potential. this could very well be useful.

Re:All I know

[that IT girl]

Oh, of course. In fact, I'm secure and know I'm good at my job, so generally I find these comments pretty funny. Especially knowing some of the women that I work with who I just know HAD to have gotten where they are through... unscrupulous means. Nevertheless, it's not exactly a welcoming environment for the average lady, no matter how savvy. ;)

Re:All I know

[somersault]

There was a Scotsman, an Englishman and an.. oh wait, you probably wouldn't get it anyway..

For the record, I think the GP sounds like he has a decent sense of humour, and you're just scared of upsetting people. Personally I think there's a lot of humour to be found in stereotypes, as long as it is the ironic kind and not just vicious racism and the like. I don't mind people making jokes about my ethnicity (Scottish), the fact that I am not a morning person, blah blah blah.

There have been people at my work who do seem genuinely bigoted and in those cases, your talk of avoiding confrontation and such is valid, but the GP doesn't sound like a bigot. And as an aside, how on earth do you think that weight is 'beyond the control' of the subject (unless they perhaps aren't physically well enough to do exercise). If you get regular exercise and don't eat junk then it's going to be pretty difficult for your body to pile on the pounds. I have a pretty good metabolism (I recognise that some people put on weight more easily than others, I'm 14 stone/196 pounds, 6'2", my sister goes crazy whenever I suggest I'm getting 'fat', because I'm not :p ), but I also am trying to keep more of a reign of my appetite these days. FFS, I hate political correctness so much..