How Long Does It Take To Reach To The Moon?

Moon is the brightest object seen in the night sky from the Earth. Moon is the Closest celestial body from the Earth. The one which is admired by the people all across the globe because of its beauty and shine.

Its presence is most important to help sustain life on the planet Earth. It is the Moon’s gravitational force which binds the Earth’s atmosphere constant leading it to be stable.

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The Moon is about 3,84,400 away from the Earth. According to NASA near about 30 Earth sized object can be placed in the space present between the Earth and the Moon. The Moon orbit around the Earth in an elliptical manner.

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It is observed by the scientist that the Moon is getting farther away from the surface of the Earth every year by 1.5 inches. There are a lot of factors which we need to consider to determine how much time is taken by spacecraft or satellite to reach the Moon.

Here are few of the factors :

1) Manned Or Unmanned Missions

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It would take longer to reach when the spacecraft contains astronauts or passengers in it in comparison with the spacecraft without passengers.

2) Close And Far Point On The Moon

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Many countries at different points in the history have reached to the moon. But the time for each of them varies. We cannot give the exact hours or days it took because time also depends on the distance of the closest and farthest place on the Moon.

3) Speed Of The Satellite Or Spacecraft

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The time taken by the satellite to reach the orbit of the moon depends directly on the speed of the satellite or the spacecraft. If the speed is slower than it would take longer to reach the destination. But if the speed is high than it would require minimum time.

Spacecraft OR Satellite Sent To The Moon

1) First Spacecraft

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The first spacecraft was sent to the moon was by the USSR in 1959. Since then several manned and robotic missions landed on the Moon. So it totally depends on the speed of the spacecraft that in how many days or hours it will land on the Moon. Luna 1 first investigation was launched by the USSR and it took near about 34 hours to reach within the 6000 kilometers on the Moon.

2) Slowest Spacecraft

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ESA SMART-1 lunar so far has taken the longest time to reach to the Moon this spacecraft was launched in the year 2003. It was one of the most technically advanced spacecraft sent into space. This spacecraft reached the moon after a year.

3) Apollo Missions

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NASA sent eight missions on the moon among these six of landed successfully and two were crashed. Apollo 8 took 69 hours 8 minutes to reach to the moon.

Other manned missions such as Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the moon. It reached on the moon after 3 days, 3 hours, 49 minutes in space.

4) Fastest Spacecraft

Source = Nasa

On the other hand, the NASA’s one of the fastest spacecraft New Horizons Pluto mission took about eight hours and 35 minutes to reach its destination. It is the shortest time taken by any spacecraft to reach the moon. The speed of the spacecraft was near about 58,000 kilometers per hour.

5) Robotic Spacecraft

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Now NASA and other space agencies are working towards sending robots to the moon so as to explore and investigate the surface of the moon. As sending robots is more economical than people so in near future they might be sending human made robots rather than humans.

So, whenever you get the opportunity to visit or see the sightings of the space or the moon. You can use any space rocket of your choice for tourist flights. (14.1)