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."

Full Moon on Moon?

[$0.02]

The moon stays inside Earth's 'magnetotail' for six days every month â" during full moon. Wouldn't that be full earth instead?

Re:If we want to go to the moon

[arivanov]

Russian rovers have happily survived through it.

They were however idle during the night and ran on electronics which are considerably less prone to radiation problems.

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.

how about ISS?

[Anonymous Coward]

why isn't the ISS affected by the "magnetic tail"? It has to pass trough it.

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

[that IT girl]

Okay! :D

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..

Re:All I know

[Jarjarthejedi]

"I prefer to treat them and others the way I prefer to be treated myself: with respect."

My friends and I have a habit of showing respect through joking. I once confused a teacher by getting in a huge joke argument with one of my best friends, which had us both laughing and the teacher wondering how we could be friends and be so mean to one another.

"These conditions do not apply to everyone and you assume too much"

They apply to myself and those I consider friends. Ergo we all enjoy such jokes (especially jabs at one of my friends because he's of Dutch origin and just happens to be a very frugal person. The two are entirely unrelated (there's a good reason for his frugality) but we all have fun poking fun at it, even the friend).

If you don't like such humor then that's fine, perhaps I went a little overboard in my statements because I was in a bad mood. But don't assume that those of us who do enjoy such humor are horrible people either. We happen to enjoy poking fun at someone because of things beyond their control, because it's clearly joking. I myself am often poked fun of for my height, all in good fun because we all know and acknowledge that none of these things are going to change, could be changed, and so laughing at them isn't offensive, because the person knows it's all in good fun (and trust me, they enjoy it just as much as I do, otherwise my best friend would long ago have ditched me :P).

And no, I'm not particurally well known for this type of humor. It's only in the company of those who I know are mature enough to not be offended, and find the jokes humorous, that I tell such jokes, and even then it wasn't I who started the trend with my friends (believe it or not it was the Dutch friend, who started the trend by [i]poking fun at his own frugality[/i].

There are many different types of people out there. Some of us can enjoy a good laugh at someone else's expense (especially our own expense), so long as the joke is meant in good fun and not intended to hurt them, and when we get together the stereotypes will fly right out the window and we'll all have a great time making fun of each other, but most of all making fun of people who actually believe the racist, sexist material we use :P.