This probably isn't even a "crater" in the usual sense, but more of an
impact pit. From low lunar orbit, where the Apollo craft were inserted, the
impact speed will be less than 2600 m/s- probably not even close to what
would be considered hypervelocity in the sense it is used for cratering,
given the nature of the lunar surface. So you just do a kinetic energy
calculation, and get 4.7e10 J or about 11 tons TNT equivalent. The crater
(or pit) size seems pretty reasonable for that.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Meteorites USA" <[email protected]>
To: "Meteorite-list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 1:08 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Apollo 13's Booster Impact
Saw this, though it was cool. But of course I have questions. ;)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc-20100322-apollo13booster.html
How fast was it going upon impact? Why is the crater only 30 meters in
diameter, while the booster was almost that long? Was the booster not
traveling fast enough to make a larger crater? What other factors were in
play to create the crater, material the booster was made of, size, weight,
speed, angle of descent, all of the above?
Regards,
Eric Wichman
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