Lunar day/ sun rise

[Q3ark]

Hi chaps, having fun with orbiter. I have finaly got around to leaving earth orbit and landing on the moon, it's good stuff.

My question is, what is the best way to plan a moon shot so that my landing site will be in daylight? Preferably at lunar dawn, I'm getting tired of landing in the dark.

 

[agentgonzo]

Not an easy question to answer. It depends where on the lunar surface your target is. If you don't mind where you land, then you can land anywhere that's on the terminater (lunar dawn). If you mind where you land, then you need to launch (TLI) from the Earth about 3 days before lunar dawn for your landing site.

 

[garyw]

I tend to have a base at my landing site and sit there watching the clock to see when dawn breaks. A day is two weeks on the moon so once you get daybreak you can always reset the clock and launch 3 days earlier or launch then and get to the moon 3 days after daybreak

 

[Q3ark]

I googled "phases of the moon" and found a cool web site with a calendar displaying the moon's different phases each day over the year (2009). Not exactly NASA but it'll do for now .

 

[RisingFury]

A day is two weeks on the moon

You mean daylight, right?

 

[Salamander]

Off the top of my head, sunrise at lunar longitude 0 would be about a week after new moon, sunset about two weeks later. For each 12 degree of longitude eastwards it would be a day earlier, for each 12 degrees of westwards it would be a day later.
So all you have to know is how long ago the last new moon was.

Alternatively it should be possible to calculate the current moonphase by adding or subtracting TrA from earth with reference against the sun and moon in reference to earth.

Well, an MFD would be handy that tells how long to the next sunrise or sunset it is on any surface base anywhere.