NASA Crashed Apollo Hardware Into Moon, Triggering Seismic Vibrations Lasting Up to 4 Hours
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · May 29
NASA Crashed Apollo Hardware Into Moon, Triggering Seismic Vibrations Lasting Up to 4 Hours
1 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · May 29
Summary
Between 1969 and 1972, NASA deliberately slammed empty Apollo lunar modules and Saturn V third stages into the Moon to generate calibrated seismic signals for a four-station instrument network.
At roughly 6,000 kph, Apollo 12’s lunar module impact in November 1969 produced vibrations that built slowly and took nearly an hour to fade; Apollo 13’s Saturn V stage in April 1970 reverberated for about four hours.
The long decay came from the Moon’s dry, cold, heavily fractured crust and interior: shattered near-surface rock scattered seismic waves, while low energy absorption let them persist far longer than on Earth.
More than 12,000 moonquakes recorded before the network went to standby in September 1977 helped build today’s lunar interior models, while later GRAIL gravity mapping found no evidence for a hollow Moon.
Will new Artemis seismometers at the South Pole confirm or challenge the original 'ringing moon' theory?
How does Apollo's 'ringing moon' data now guide engineers building future lunar bases?
What cosmic secrets could we unlock by turning the Moon into a giant gravitational wave detector?
Apollo Seismic Data Revisited: New Discoveries Guiding Artemis Missions and Beyond
Overview
Seismic data collected by the Apollo missions from 1969 to 1977 remains essential for understanding the Moon’s interior and seismic activity. Modern reanalysis techniques, using advanced algorithms, have unlocked new insights from this historic dataset, including the discovery of previously undetected moonquakes. These findings are now shaping the planning and safety of future lunar exploration, especially for the Artemis program. By revisiting data from the three Apollo seismic stations, scientists can better identify hazardous areas and inform the design of new seismic networks, ensuring safer and more effective missions on the Moon.