History UsefulNotes / TheMoon

* ''[[{{Apollo18}} Apollo 18]]'' is a fictionalized account of a top secret final moon landing, presented as a [[FoundFootageFilms FoundFootageFilm.]]

* ''[[{{Apollo18}} Apollo 18]]'' is a fictionalized account of a top secret final moon landing, presented as a FoundFootageFilm.

* The opening of ''Film/IndependenceDay'' fetures the alien mothership flying past the moon, so close that its gravity (or engine-emission vibrations, we can't really tell) disturbs the Apollo 11 landing site.

* The 1998 miniseries ''[[Series/FromTheEarthToTheMoon]]'' is about [=NASA=]'s space program, focusing primarily on the Apollo moon missions and what it took to get there.

The moon has been with us since before the dawn of the human race, progressing through its utterly predictable phases night after night. For most of human prehistory, it was the only light source available to us at night, which lent it a good deal of mystique. Lunar deities are almost as prevalent as Solar deities in human culture; in fact, the very name Luna was originally the name of a goddess from ClassicalMythology who personified the moon. The fact that the moon's 29-and-a-half-day light cycle is very, very similar in duration to the average [[WomensMysteries woman's menstrual cycle]] has also not escaped the notice of poets and philosophers, and indeed the moon is often associated with femininity in literature and myth. Loss of personal control and going berserk are also associated with the full moon, and not just when dealing with [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]]; the very word "lunatic" refers to the moon.

* JulesVerne's ''FromTheEarthToTheMoon'' has a huge bullet-like spacecraft shot off a cannon with three people in it. The book ends there, but the sequel, ''Around the Moon'', deals with the space travel. [[spoiler:However, they never reach the moon, only orbit around it and back (as the title implies)]].

* Film/ATripToTheMoon, the first movie to rely on special effects to tell the story of a trip, featured people getting shot to the moon inside a giant cannon shell -- which gave the Man in the Moon a black eye.

The moon's surface is covered in craters, caused by comet and asteroid impacts in the ancient (and, occasionally, recent) past. Each of those craters has a name, and most are named after scientists and philosophers. For instance, the great big crater with the huge white rays coming out of it in all directions is Tycho Crater, named after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe Tycho Brahe]]. The moon's surface is also partially covered by "Seas", dark areas where ancient volcanoes spilled lava all over the place. Like the craters, each Sea has a name, but unlike the craters the Sea names are derived from things that sailors might be concerned about -- the Sea of Tranquility, the Sea of Rains, the Sea of Fecundity, etc..

Despite how bright the moon may appear in the night sky, its surface is very very dark. Its albedo is a dismal 7%, which means that 93% of all incident light is absorbed without being reflected back into space. For comparison, Earth's albedo is around 38%. The difference in color between the light-colored regolith and the dark-colored "seas" is like the difference between coal dust and ''extra-dark'' coal dust.

Compared to other moons in UsefulNotes/TheSolarSystem, Earth's moon is really huge compared with the planet it orbits, weighing in at a whopping 1/81 of Earth's mass. By comparison, even the largest moon of Saturn is only 1/4000 of Saturn's mass. Currently, our best guess at how such a humongous companion came into existence is that a UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}-sized planetessimal struck the Earth early in its formation period, which knocked loose a huge chunk of material that eventually cooled, congealed, and settled into the moon's current nearly-circular orbit. However, a recent comparison of the Earth-moon titanium isotope ratio has [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/26/moon-formation-theory-new-study_n_1380127.html thrown this model into question]].

Since the moon keeps the same face pointed toward Earth at all times, the far side of the moon can't be seen from the Earth's surface, and it wasn't until the advent of the first space probes that we had any idea what the far side looked like. Both the near side and the far side wax and wane through light-and-dark phases, so it's incorrect to call the far side the "DarkSideOfTheMoon" except during the brief period every month while the moon appears Full in Earth's skies.

The moon's surface is covered in craters, caused by comet and asteroid impacts in the ancient (and, occasionally, recent) past. Each of those craters has a name, and most are named after scientists and philosophers. The great big crater with the huge white rays coming out of it in all directions, for instance is Tycho Crater, named after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe Tycho Brahe]]. The moon's surface is also partially covered by "Seas", dark areas where ancient volcanoes spilled lava all over the place. Like the craters, each Sea has a name, but unlike the craters the Sea names are deriived from things that sailors might be concerned about -- the Sea of Tranquility, the Sea of Rains, the Sea of Fecundity, etc..

* The pilot episode of ''[[{{Salvage1}} Salvage 1]]'' features Andy Griffith flying to the moon in a homemade rocket. (He can get away with this because their NASA reject friend has concocted a rocket fuel hundreds of times more efficient than anything the space program has yet put into production.) His intent is to salvage all the "junk" the Apollo astronauts left lying around on the moon and sell it.

* The pilot episode of ''[[{{Salvage1}} Salvage 1]]'' features Andy Griffith flying to the moon in a homemade rocket. They can get away with this because their NASA reject friend has concocted a rocket fuel hundreds of times more efficient than anything the space program has yet put into production.

[[AC:Film]]

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:Film]]

* ''[[Literature/TheMouseThatRoared The Mouse on the Moon]], the 3rd installment in the ''Mouse that Roared'' series, features the mini-country of Grand Fenwick embroiled in TheSpaceRace with the Americans and Soviets. They get to the moon with a rocket powered by wine fermentation.

* The Walter Koenig vehicle {{Moontrap}} involves alien intelligences lying in wait on the moon.

* ''Apollo13'', being based on the RealLife Apollo moon mission, had the moon as the crew's ultimate (original) destination.

The moon has been with us since before the dawn of the human race, progressing through its utterly predictable phases night after night. For most of human prehistory, it was the only light source available to us at night, which lent it a good deal of mystique. Lunar deities are almost as prevalent as Solar deities in human culture; in fact, the very name Luna was originally the name of a goddess from ClassicalMythology who personified the moon. The fact that the moon's 29-and-a-half-day light cycle is very, very similar in duration to the average [[WomensMysteries woman's menstrual cycle]] has also not escaped the notice of poets and philosophers, and indeed the moon is often associated with femininity in literature and myth.

The moon has been with us since before the dawn of the human race, progressing through its utterly predictable phases night after night. For most of human prehistory, it was the only light source available to us at night, which lent it a good deal of mystique. Lunar deities are almost as prevalent as Solar deities in human culture; in fact, the very name Luna was originally the name of a goddess from ClassicalMythology who personified the moon.

It orbits our planet some 400,000 kilometers away, taking 27.3 days to go all the way around once. Tidal forces long ago caused it to lock in synchronous rotation with the Earth, so that the same side is always facing us.