Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

 

Used Spacecraft Lot Needed On Moon

If you could salvage all of the material that human beings have left on the moon, you could open a fairly substantial used spacecraft lot.

If all of these craft could be collected in one junkyard/sales lot, the sales brochure would look like this:

Update 16-May-2007: Corrections have been made to the list based on attentive reader comments. End update notice.

Mission Object Description Condition Year
Luna 2 Small spherical craft with sensors Poor (Crash-landed) 1959
Ranger 4 5' high sensor platform w/failed solar panels Poor (Crash-landed) 1962
Rangers 6-9 #6 arrived but failed; others deployed sending photos Poor (Crash-landed) 1964-5
Luna 5,7,8 Sensor platforms with retro-rockets attempt soft landings Poor (Crash-landed) 1965
Luna 9 Spherical sensor platform with cameras makes successful soft-landing, sends back photos Excellent (dead battery) 1966
Surveyor 1-7 Sensor platform w/solar panels, soil analysis
(some vandalism on #3 by Pete Conrad - camera missing)
Excellent (#3 checked by Apollo crew 1969) 1966-68
Luna 10-12 Satellites with MP3 capability (transmitted "Internationale") orbited moon Poor (Crash-landed) 1966-68
Luna 13 Achieved soft-landing; excellent cameras, detailed soil analysis Excellent (battery dead) 1966
Lunar Orbiter 1-5 Satellites w/solar panels and dish antennae, excellent cameras and 70 mm film processing Poor (Crash-landed) 1966-67
Explorer 35 Satellite with sensors; switched off 1972 Poor (Crash-landed) 1967
Apollo 10-17 Lunar lander descent stages; some missions left behind retroflectors for lunar ranging.
[except for #13, which never got there, and #10, which crashed]
Excellent 1969-72
Apollo 10-17 Lunar lander ascent stages, which fell back onto the moon.
[except for #13, which never got there.]
Poor 1969-72
Apollo 15-17 Lunar Roving Vehicles (style: dune buggy) in good shape, low mileage Good 1971-72
Luna 15 Platform-style unmanned lander intended to bring back samples Poor (Crash-landed) 1969
Lunokhod 1 Robotic lunar rover with cameras teleoperated from Earth; low mileage Good 1970
Lunokhod 2 Robotic lunar rover with upgrades also equipped with laser-ranging reflector Good 1973
Luna 23,24 Platform-style craft left descent stages Good 1974
Hiten/ Hagoromo Satellite lunar probes Poor (Crash-landed) 1990
Lunar Prospector Sensor-laden craft intended to locate lunar water Poor (Crash-landed) 1998
Smart-1 Satellite with unique Hall effect ion-thruster Poor (Crash-landed) 2006

Science fiction writers have already explored the idea of a used spacecraft lot on the Moon. In his 1941 novel Methuselah's Children, Robert Heinlein describes it this way:

...Despite efforts to make the Moon colony ecologically self-sufficient, Luna City still imported vastly more tonnage than she exported. On Earth this would have resulted in "empties coming back"; in space transport it was sometimes cheaper to let empties accumulate, especially on Luna where an empty freighter was worth more as metal than it had cost originally as a ship back Earthside.

They suited up and left the dome by North Tunnel, then strolled along the grounded ships in the long, easy strides of low gravity...
(Read more about Lunar Used Spacecraft Lot)


(Lunar Rovers (3); low mileage, excellent shape, make offer)

If you are interested in space junk, you will want to collect these stories:

Via Moon Junk.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/9/2007)

Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.

| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |

Would you like to contribute a story tip? It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add it here.

Comment/Join discussion ( 24 )

Related News Stories - (" Space Tech ")

Is China Mining Helium-3 On The Moon's Farside?
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.' -

Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?' - Frank K. Kelly, 1935.

Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'

Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...' - Murray Leinster, 1953.

 

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Current News

LLM 'Cognitive Core' Now Evolving
'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'

Has Elon Musk Given Up On Mars?
'There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.'

Bacteria Turns Plastic Into Pain Relief? That Gives Me An Idea.
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'

When Your Child's Best Friend Is An AI
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'

China's Drone Mothership Can Carry 100 Drones
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'

Drones Recharge In Mid-Air Like Jets Refuel!
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'

Australian Authors Reject AI Training Of Llama
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'

Is China Mining Helium-3 On The Moon's Farside?
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'

Maybe It's Too Soon To Require Autonomous Mode
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.

Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness?
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'

Heat Waver - The First Ever Combo Solar Collector And Wind Turbine
'...like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'

Tesla 'Fleet Response Agents' Bolster FSD Autonomy
'You hate the whole idea that some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre has got your life... in his hands.'

Mori3 Autonomous Shapeshifting Robot
'My homeland is being threatened by the Replicators. Thus far all attempts to stop them have failed.'

Tesla Seeks 'Tesla Robotaxi' And 'Robobus' Trademarks Ignoring Prior Art
'A robobus had just rolled up to the curb.'

Scary Grid Safety Robots
'The ultimate horror for our paranoid culture...'

Does AI Provide A Way Forward For Talk Therapy
'And there in the next room by the sofa sat a familiar suitcase, that of his psychiatrist Dr. Smile.'

More SF in the News Stories

More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories

Home | Glossary | Invention Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.