Tranquility Base, 20JUL1969. Surface temperature?

[CesarAKG]

Hello

I was trying to find the surface temperature in Tranquility Base in 20-Jul-1969, but cannot find any useful information.

Does someone have any information about that?

TIA

[moog]

This might be a good place to start :

http://workingonthemoon.com/WOTM-ThermalEnvrnmnt.html

[LaurelHS]

May I ask why this is in Conspiracy Theories?

[PetersCreek]

May I ask why this is in Conspiracy Theories?

I'll make it official. CesarAKG, are you proposing a conspiracy theory regarding the Moon landings?

[John Jones]

Hello

I was trying to find the surface temperature in Tranquility Base in 20-Jul-1969, but cannot find any useful information.

Does someone have any information about that?

TIA

One of the best, IMO.

http://www.clavius.org/envheat.html

[astromark]

Great swaths of information. Reams of paper documents all bristling with information...

should put this to bed early, Yes... http://workingonthemoon.com/WOTM-ThermalEnvrnmnt.html

and a search of NASA documents could keep you reading for weeks...

A great deal of very good science was done to ensure the astronauts did not get fried... or frozen...

and the films they took were not ruined... sigh !

[CesarAKG]

Thansk for your answer, moog, that is an excellent page!

Mr. Moderator, I'm actually trying to clear some misunderstandings about surface temperature on the moon made by some conspiracists. Maybe this topic should be moved to some other area, as I'm not proposing a conspiracy theory, but trying to dispell some.

[Clanger]

Here's all you need to know to work it out..

Apollo Sun angles:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/alsj-sunangles.html

Apollo 11
EVA
Start: 109.00 GET, 14.0 deg.
Finis: 111.75 GET, 15.4 deg.


Lunarpedia detailing equations and examples:
http://www.lunarpedia.org/index.php?title=Lunar_Temperature

From that page we get "At 75 degrees we reach about 281 K or 8 degrees C."

So at 15 degrees above the horizon (75 degrees to perpendicular) the average temperature of the surface was about 8 degrees centigrade. Remember though that orthoganal objects will heat up as though the Sun was directly above - hence the need for temperature shielding on the LM and suits. Given that craters and slopes offer more angles both towards and away from Sun angle, there will be variation.

[JayUtah]

When people ask me this question in relation to Apollo 11, I usually say, "About 35-40 F." That's the result of some computations I did many years ago, looking at the best and worst cases of expected surface undulation. Surface temperatures vary greatly on Earth too, over small expanses of terrain. People really want a single number, even though that can't be done without sacrificing accuracy. Then along comes some conspiracy theorist who won't respect the caveats associated with the approximation.

[pzkpfw]

I recall a "little old lady" who complained in writing to one of our T.V. stations, because the weather reports always under-reported the temperature in her town. It was very unfair, she said, it was always less than what she measured, and made her town "look bad" (to tourists etc...).

Turned out she measured the temp using a thermometer she left lying on her concrete drive-way, in full Sun.