Talk:List of artificial objects on the Moon

Personal objects
At a glance, I do not see the golf balls represented. They ought to be. -Cory
 * I agree, the personal objects taken up and left are just as much artificial objects and in a way just as interesting - for instance Charlie Duke's photograph of his family left on the ground. I think they should be added to the list - perhaps a separate section of the table? Do people agree? CharlesC 12:48, 19 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Yeah I think it should be added, including the flags left, there is a limited and destinguishable amount of objects on the moon and i think they should be included.


 * Totally agreed, why leave them out?87.194.252.72 (talk) 12:48, 26 May 2008 (UTC)


 * I recently found this page about a sculpture left on the moon. Shouldn't it be on this page aswell?--Found5dollar (talk) 01:45, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

There is a complete list of objects here if you wish to add them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.39.180.179 (talk) 21:51, 2 May 2016 (UTC)

Google Moon
I added two links to google's moon maps - Luna 13 and Apollo 11

Does anyone think this is a good/bad idea? Que 16:55, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Orbital decay
It is mentioned tat various object fell to the moon after orbital decay. There is no air there so what causes the decay?
 * The gravitational field of the Moon is not uniform. You have the Sun and the Earth causing orbits to change. There are also mass concentrations below the surface of the Moon which mean that orbits will eventually be changed so much that they pass "through" the surface. Evil Monkey&#8756;Hello 21:53, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

What does "decayed in orbit" mean? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.193.88.89 (talk) 00:20, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Etc.
What about the US flag (are there other flags?) and the landing site plaque? Also wasn't other equipment such as lunar rovers left behind after Apollo missions? - Keith D. Tyler &para; 18:36, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
 * The plaques were integrated in to the ladder leg of the LEM descent stage, and the rovers were all parked very close by in order to ease the unloading of material and equipment. As for the flags, I'm not sure. I've heard that it was planted at a considerable distance from the LM after 11's was knocked over by the blast of the ascent engine, but that might be apocryphal.

Title should change
I think the title of this page should change to Terrestrial objects on the Moon, or Human made objects on the moon. I know it is pretty unlikely there are any other type of objects up there, but it is pretty arrogant to assume we are the only ones make artificial objects... Any one against it?


 * I am. The current article title is precise and non-confusing.  If we ever find on the Moon an artificial object made by Martians, we'll calmly add it to this list.  Tempshill 00:13, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Any on the dark side?
Are any of the objects in this list sitting on the dark side of the Moon? If so it would be nice to tag them as such. Tempshill 00:13, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes anything on the grid past 90 degrees on either side (in the table past 90 degrees East or West - I guess that means Ranger 4, Lunar Orbiter 1, Lunar Orbiter 2 and Lunar Orbiter 3 -- Astrokey44 |talk 14:00, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Just to nit-pick a little, there is no dark side of the moon, but a far side; Every point of the moon sees sunlight at one point or another of it's month-long 'day'.Chris CII 13:18, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Grid?
Is this just because I've been drinking too much beer tonight, but is the grid plotting the objects downright nonsensical? It gives no indication what the axises (sp?) are supposed to be. If they are latitude/longitude coordinates, then the grid is plotted on a weird scale (what is at 100 degrees latitude?) --Bletch 00:50, 31 July 2006 (UTC)


 * ive cropped it at 90 degrees, is that better? --Astrokey 44 02:04, 31 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Yup; it was the "100" on the vertical axis that got me. --Bletch 00:12, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Actually that image cropping may have been premature. Yes, it is true that less than one hemisphere is visible during a single full moon. However, over time, more than half of the Lunar surface is visible from earth due to variations in both Earth and Lunar orbits known as librations. Approximately 188 degrees of Longitude and 186 degrees of latitude are visible from Earth. There is a telescope video on the web that demonstrates this very well. However I have not been able to re-find it.Ccordes 03:33, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Wrecks
I would like that the readers, at a glance, could distinguish between intact objects and wrecks. I have three suggestions:
 * Divide the table into a table with the intacts and a table with wrecks.
 * A sixth column with condition (intact/wreck).
 * A prefix like 'crashed at 29.1°N 0°W in the Location column.

Necessary Evil 02:05, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

I was about to suggest the same thing.--SkiDragon (talk) 19:48, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

smart 1
Why is the launched date of the smart 1 in 2006?

Mass of Removed Artificial Objects
How much (in mass) was removed from Surveyor 3 by Apollo 12? 71.60.155.71 10:29, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Smart28261.jpg
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Hinten Orbiter final location
According to the page for the orbiter there is an exact longitude and latitude. Either this page or that page is incorrect. Cs302b (talk) 08:54, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

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MIP terminated after moon impact
This is the reference for this, taken from Moon Impact Probe article and verified on ISRO site Padalkar.kshitij (talk) 06:54, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Apollo 10 LM descent stage - Returned to Earth?
Apollo_10 says The Apollo 10 LM descent stage is expected to have crashed onto the lunar surface, but the exact location is unknown. and the footnote at List_of_artificial_objects_on_the_Moon says Spacecraft was in lunar orbit but is assumed to have decayed from orbit and crashed into the moon, location unknown. so it would appear that the Apollo 10 LM descent stage has not returned to Earth. Occultations (talk) 20:09, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Apollo 17 Rover Location
In the grid, the location of the Apollo 17 lunar rover is given as 20.17°N 30.77°W. All the other Apollo 17 artifacts are in the Eastern Hemisphere. Is this in error? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.123.48.148 (talk) 23:49, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

"Not in the list, but..."
As of this comment, the very first paragraph in the article reads The following table is a partial list of artificial objects on the surface of the Moon. The list does not include smaller objects such as the retroreflectors and Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package. Nor does it include several commemorative or personal objects left there by Apollo astronauts, such as the golf balls from Alan Shepard's lunar driving practice during Apollo 14, flags, or the Fallen Astronaut statuette left by the crew of Apollo 15. Which is really just a more verbose way of saying "This is an article that talks about things except about the things we're talking about in this paragraph of the article."

I would suggest adding the things in the paragraph to the list, and changing the paragraph to read something like: "The following table is a partial list of artificial objects on the surface of the Moon. The list is particularly incomplete when it comes to smaller objects such as retroreflectors or commemorative/personal objects such as flags and golf balls."

Otherwise, it just seems, well, a bit inane. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.142.58.208 (talk) 07:48, 22 July 2009 (UTC)


 * A NASA pin and a family photo of one of the astronauts (in a zip bag), mentioned by the Apollo astronauts in a recent documentary. --79.168.10.241 (talk) 17:45, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Coordinates of Ranger 4
Please see my question at the Science RefDesk. For some reason the coordinates of the crash given in the article Ranger 4 are different from the coordinates in the instant article. --Mathew5000 (talk) 15:50, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Artificial vs. man-made
Artificial = not natural. Man-made is more specific, which is why I changed the article name. I hope it won't be controversial. Mr. PIM (talk) 17:21, 1 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I've updated this to "human-made" due to Manual of Style#Gender-neutral language: "Use gender-neutral language where this can be done with clarity and precision". Thanks all for your work on the article! All the best, Fifth Fish Finger (talk) 23:48, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
 * "human-made" is unwieldy and not a common search term; "artificial" would be better, IMHO. See also List of artificial objects on extra-terrestrial surfaces. &mdash; MrDolomite &bull; Talk 15:57, 7 April 2010 (UTC)


 * "Artifical" is, IMHO, the most appropriate term for things like this. Simple, concise, accurate and to the point. Redirects from "...man-made..." and "...human-made..." would be appropriate, though. - The Bushranger (talk) 16:14, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Lede rewrite
The lede does not meet Wikipedia guidelines for a lede section. Moreover, the first paragraph, arguably the most important paragraph in the article, spends most of its text telling the reader what is NOT going to be covered in the article. Seems odd. N2e (talk) 05:28, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:List of man-made disasters which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RM bot 01:45, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Gagarin
Didn't Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong leave behind a satchel with the medals of Yuri Gagarin? Thismightbezach (talk) 23:22, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Page moved: per discussion Ground Zero | t 01:21, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

List of man-made objects on the Moon → List of artificial objects on the Moon – All other lists of objects created by humanity in space, eg List of artificial objects in heliocentric orbit, List of artificial objects on Mars, List of artificial objects escaping from the Solar System, use the term "artificial". This page was previously titled "List of artificial objects on the Moon", but was moved by an editor who believed "man-made" is more specific. Since there are no artificial objects that are not man-made, the title "List of artificial objects on the Moon" is accurate, clear, and agrees with the terminology of other lists of artificial objects beyond Earth.  A ( Ch ) 10:08, 5 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Support with love and respect. Vastly better as a title. Out of curiousity I checked and saw that Artificial got 37k hits in WP while "man-made" got 7k.  Gregkaye  ✍ ♪  19:57, 5 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Support per nom. Snappy (talk) 17:05, 17 September 2014 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

re-use and other data
Does anybody talk about re-using these objects? If not, why not. Do we want to expand the info on this article, or as it is a List maybe it should have a companion page about what people want to know about these things- why they are there, how they are there. What is the significance, are there problems, are there official records of all the objects, as there are objects in space, do the items have a catalogue number. Who owns them? Perhaps I am being very naïve, but it looks like if one had a good rover, one ought to be able to land in the right place and put together wonderful things from the surrounding hundreds of kilos of old hardware!

IceDragon64 (talk) 17:46, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

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A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 00:09, 17 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Luna 2 Soviet moon probe.jpg

Requested move 16 April 2019

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Not moved. (non-admin closure) samee  converse  20:45, 24 April 2019 (UTC)

List of artificial objects on the Moon → List of spacecraft on the Moon – The list contains exclusively spacecraft, with no other artificial objects in general (such as flags, plaques, etc). The proposed title is more specific and unambiguous per WP:PRECISE. WP:BOLD move was reverted, so putting here for consideration. Brandmeistertalk  18:49, 16 April 2019 (UTC) Oppose, "96 bags of human waste". © Tb hotch ™ (en-2.5). 00:05, 20 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Comment. The lunar rovers are listed. Station1 (talk) 02:53, 17 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Technically they are also spacecraft. Brandmeistertalk  08:03, 17 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose this good faith request, per definition (the objects are no longer capable of spaceflight, and as soon as they landed or crashed on the Moon they became non-flight metal and electronic objects), the Lunar Roving Vehicles (not spacecraft, according to the first sentence of the Spacecraft page), and per site consistency (List of artificial objects on Mars, List of artificial objects on Venus, List of artificial objects on extra-terrestrial surfaces, and List of artificial objects in heliocentric orbit). Randy Kryn (talk) 12:34, 17 April 2019 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Poor article
This article is appalling. Either the title needs to be changed and the bags of poo removed from the list or we need to actually make it what the title implies it is. At the moment it's a list of space crafts and a bag of poo. Any thoughts? Cls14 (talk) 13:09, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

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Chang'e 5
When/how should this article be updated to reflect the Chinese Chang'e 5 mission? Last I saw the descent stage is remaining on the Moon, and sample return vehicle is in/approaching lunar orbit. GenericHumanoid (talk) 17:59, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Misleading mass figures?
The second line, "Luna 2 - Third stage of Vostok rocket" says mass=9100 kg. No references. Sounds improbably high for an empty, expended Block E. A quick check showed "gross mass of 3rd stage (8K72 Block E) = 7984 kg, mass after complete fuel burn = 1472 kg". 9100 or 7984 isn't an issue, the difference isn't that big. The point it, this mass never reached the Moon. Most of it was fuel, burnt in transit. Retired electrician (talk) 13:15, 5 July 2021 (UTC)

Please update with: 2022 crashed space debris rocket body
Should this be added to the article? Did material survive the impact? Seems like the identity of the object isn't really clear yet. It's currently featured in 2022 in science like so:

"New_rocket_body_impact_double_crater_on_the_Moon.png publishes images showing an unexpected and unexplained double crater from what is thought to be the first time human space debris – likely by a spent rocket body – unintentionally hit the lunar surface on 4 March."

Prototyperspective (talk) 16:54, 5 August 2022 (UTC)