Geocaching On The Moon

[GeoPhishers]

This may seem like a dumb ?, but would your gps work on the moon. Does our gov. hove sat's that track the suface of the moon? If so what kind of cords do they use and what would the cords be for the placement of the american flag(possibly the first cache, a virtual, placed on the moon)?

 

Who knows maybe one day the next generation will be geocaching on the moon ......Hell I guess now you can even pay for a private trip into space.

[+BadAndy]

A gps unit may function, but the coords wouldn't be accurate and your altitude would probably show about 384,400 km BELOW sea level.

 

I own an acre just off the Sea of Tranquility, so if you want to place a cache , you have my permission to trespass. Try to remember to CITO. Between Nasa and the russian space program....the place looks like a junkyard.

[+LETaylor]

Not sure about the moon, but to add to your options, I own a square foot of an island in Northern Scotland that you can use also. The Island of Clett, which at one time was owned by the singer Donavan is now owned jointly by those of us who bought 1 square foot each.

 

If you decide to go there please don't disturb my castle, which occupies most of my square foot. . .

[+Johnnie Stalkers]

Even if the GPSr would work you'd never get approval. It's a vacation cache.

[+RJFerret]

Not to toot my own horn, but there is a YJTB in it: Cache on the Moon

 

{wink},

 

Randy

[WH]

Since GPS shows what position you have on the earth, if you were to stand on the moon, your GPS would show that you were traveling at 2,224 MPH.

[+New England n00b]

"I like the moon. Cuz it is close to uuuuussss..."

 

Seriously, no it wouldn't work. You'd need a spherical array of satellites around the moon to get anything to work.

 

I'm not sure if the earthbound sats can send that far anyway... or rather, the receiver sensitive enough to detect the signal. Dunno. Also, don't know if the signal is directional (more or less) or just spews out all around...

[Mushtang]

Someday they'll have a GPS like system in orbit around the moon, except they'll probably call it the LPS, or Lunar Positioning System.

 

And you couldn't Geocache on the moon no matter what equipment is in place, you could only Lunacache.

 

[CacheNCarryMA]

and I guess it would be okay to put food items in a cache on the moon.

[Pantalaimon]

and I guess it would be okay to put food items in a cache on the moon.

Hey, whats with the unilateral, unauthorized rule change regarding food!?

 

Now, when I'm on the moon, and I trade some freeze dried ice cream for a moonrock (which some cheapo just picked up off the ground and left in the container), thinking that the exception to the rule is valid, I'll probably get yelled at in subsequent logs.

 

Thanks alot!

[+chris-mouse]

Now, when I'm on the moon, and I trade some freeze dried ice cream for a moonrock (which some cheapo just picked up off the ground and left in the container), thinking that the exception to the rule is valid, I'll probably get yelled at in subsequent logs.

 

Most of the visitors to a lunar cache would probably be tourists. Think of how cool that moon rock would be when it's left in a cache on earth. I know I'd love to have my own piece of the moon as a paperweight :-)

[+GeoCyclist]

I guess even if the sat signals worked on the moon, which I doubt the do as I expect the signal is directional, you would get any signals when on the dark side of the moon.

 

Talk about racking up some mileage on TBs.

 

Another great thing about the moon is you don't have to worry about your cache containers getting wet.

[+Renegade Knight]

There is no reason it wouldn't work assuming you could get a signal and your GPS can handle the distance calculations from a spot that is not normal.

 

If you can't cache just plant a letterbox.

[+shunra]

There is no reason it wouldn't work assuming you could get a signal and your GPS can handle the distance calculations from a spot that is not normal.

 

If you can't cache just plant a letterbox.

Either way, there would be maintenance issues, unless you can find a local to take care of it in your absence.

[+tirediron]

The maintenance issue is a biggy... but maybe we could get a virt or two approved?

[+Beta Test]

I don't think it would work. From my understanding the GPS satalites broadcast down on Earth (LOS communication). Since They probably are not omni-directional broadcast arrays, I doubt the moon would get a stong signal, but who knows. It could happen.

[+CO Admin]

Since portions of the moon are mapped and findable with some sort of grid system the moon could be used as the last stage of a multi as an offset. Or even a middle section of a multi, findable using the offest method. Or as part of a puzzle as long as the grid system used to locate it was part of the puzzle. Personally I am willing to stretch the guidelines for the first multi that includes both the Moon and Mars. Heck Ill Donate $100.00 Dollars US for part of the FTF as long as the physical cache is located on Mars or the Moon.

 

CO Admin.

Edited July 4, 2004 by CO Admin

[+KG7JE]

GPSr have already flown in space. Some outside the ring of sats around the earth. From what I hear, it does work. Now, for something closer to home

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gps-01n.html

[+Jeeps the Squirrel]

Hi, there!

My friend Flat Stanley and I took a tour of the planets earlier this year (GCHM7E) in my space ship, and I can tell you that my GPSr didn't work very well while we were off the Earth.

 

[Proximus Centauri]

Although this is a repeat of a previous thread....yes- GPS does work on the moon- however it is given at Earth coords at an extreme altitude- but as the moon orbits the earth, and the earth rotates- you could never have an exact coordinate- it would always be changing.

 

Here is the original thread:

 

Lunarcache

[+Blind Avocado]

There was a very good write-up on how the GPS system works in Scientific American a couple of months ago. From what I understand, GPS works when the GPSr locks onto a satellite it projects a sphere from that satellite and puts itself on the surface of that sphere. When it locks onto more then one it calculates where the spheres intersect. This can be one of two locations, your position, and one out in space. Because it is trying to find a position on earth, it throws out the space position. This, I think, means that it would not work on the moon. It sure would be fun trying to find out for sure!

Edited July 15, 2004 by Blind Avocado

[+The Jester]

Don't know about the moon, but there were news reports last week about plans to put GPS sats aroung Mars for tracking explorations - mechanical or human.

[+LukeH]

No. The antennas on the satellites are high gain (~15 dB) and thus very directional. They beam the signal down in a narrow cone that just covers the disc that is the Earth (from the satellite's 20,200 km vantage point). Some of the signal gets by, though, and I suspect this is the primary reason that satellites orbiting above the GPS constellation can pick up the signal.

 

Satellites in low orbit such as the space station can use GPS with no problems, since they are so low (200-500 km). From the GPS satellite's point of view, they might as well be on the surface of the earth. Just be sure that your receiver can display speeds up to 7.5 km/sec!

 

Because of this I seriously doubt you could receive the GPS signal on the Moon without a very high gain antenna (dish or phased array). And as has been said, even if you could, it would be useless since it gives you an Earth coordinate.

 

Also - Avocado: if it only sees 3 satellites, this is the case where it has to throw out one of the solutions (the one in space) and return the one on Earth. It actually does do the math for a fourth sphere by assuming that you are on the surface of the Earth, leaving it with only one solution. If it sees 4 or more sats, there is only 1 solution, and therefore would in theory work on Earth or in space.

 

Interestingly, I have read about some GPS receivers that will continue to track you (with low precision) even if they drop down to 2 satellites: this is because they assume that you are on the surface of the earth, which provides them with one more sphere (okay, geoid, not exactly sphere) to use in the calculation. However that only works if the receiver already knew where you are (from having more sats in view previously), because the 2-sat plus Earth geoid assumption results in TWO solutions on the Earth's surface. Visualize some spheres and you'll see how that works.

 

Fun stuff.

 

I think we need a GPS system around the moon and Mars, and maybe some in solar orbit so we can have another way to navigate through interplanetary space.