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Welcome to Lunarpedia!
A resource for reaching our stepping stone to the Solar System.
Statistics: 904 articles | 428 uploads | 338 registered contributors | 14 administrators | 154,693 edits.

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NOTICE: All articles in the main namespace are released to the Public Domain and may be used for any purpose without entangling restrictions. DO NOT add any content to these pages that you do not wish to release to the public domain and/or lack the authority to release to the public domain!

Articles controlled by the GNU FDL should be imported with full revision histories to the GFDL: namespace. For example, the [[Crater chain]] article from Wikipedia would need to be implemented as [[GFDL:Crater chain]] here. A tutorial is available.

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Lunarpedia's sister sites Exoplatz - a general space wiki Exodictionary - a space dictionary Marspedia - a Mars wiki Scientifiction.org - scientific fiction

Lunarpedia's mission is to cover everything we will need to know how to do on Luna (the Earth's moon) to set up self-sustaining bases and colonies, as well as related efforts, designs, and business models that may eventually lead there. Construction is always ongoing and you can help! Are you new to Lunarpedia? Start here!

Featured article: Eddy Current Brake to Orbit | 24 October 2019 This device is the central feature of a spacecraft carrier that receives spacecraft into orbit as an aircraft carrier receives aircraft that land on its deck. It works by having a long slotted aluminum tube in orbit and having the shuttle vehicle that is launched to orbital altitude enter this slot while the tube is moving by at orbital speed. The shuttle only needs to reach orbital altitude to enter the eddy current brake tube. That can be 10 kilometers on Luna at the perilune, an altitude that can be reached with 188 meters per second mission delta v, including gravity loss, a few seconds maneuvering fuel, and a small safety margin. Magnetic flux from permanent magnets deployed by the shuttle is directed at the walls of the tube causing a repulsive force and a retarding force. By reducing the speed of the shuttle relative to the orbiting aluminum tube, the shuttle is brought up to near orbital speed. Since eddy current braking loses effectiveness at low relative speeds, friction braking is used to give the shuttle the last 18 meters per second to reach orbital speed and match velocity with the aluminum tube. During all the time that the relative speed of the shuttle and the aluminum tube is greater than 18 meters per second, there is no contact between the material of the shuttle and the material of the aluminum tube. ...(read more) See all featured articles | Nominate!

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How to layout your pages

• You can download a very useful one page Wiki Reference Card as a PDF.

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• Or an easy-to-dig page of wiki examples is at Wikitext Examples

These files are best saved to your hard drive and also printed. Right click and "Save Link As" to do that. Or, if you have the plugins installed you can just click and view in your browser. But please don't forget to come back here afterwards :-)

Signing your comments

When you add comments to User_talk pages, please sign using <BR/>-- ~~~~, this automatically adds your signature and a time and date stamp in UTC like so:
-- MikeD 09:15, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

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About Lunarpedia

• Original research is allowed and encouraged
• On topic is our concern, not notability
• We're not concerned about encyclopedic neutrality
• On topic commercial articles are welcome

Lunarpedia News

• 01 January 2009 - Lunarpedia is now on Facebook!

• 21 October 2008 - Chandrayaan-1 Launches Successfully.

• 14 October 2008 - Moon Society publishes new issue of Frontlines for October 2008.

• 05 August 2008 - New Featured Article: Volatiles

• 29 June 2008 - New Featured Article: Sintered Regolith

• 23 June 2008 - Work begins on mirroring content from Exoplatz on Lunarpedia and Marspedia.

• 31 May 2008 - Moon Society Unveils the Solar Power Beaming Demonstrator at the International Space Development Conference in DC.

• 18 February 2008 - Moon Society Announces its Table Top Solar Power Beaming Demonstrator Project.