Gravitation of the Moon (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles The gravitational field of the Moon has been determined by the tracking of radio signals emitted by orbiting spacecraft. The principle used depends on the Doppler effect, whereby the line-of-sight spacecraft acceleration can be measured by small shifts in frequency of the radio signal, and the measurement of the distance from the spacecraft to a station on Earth. Since the gravitational field of the Moon affects the orbit of a spacecraft, it is possible to use these tracking data to invert for gravity anomalies. However, because of the Moon's synchronous rotation it is not possible to track spacecraft much over the limbs of the Moon, and the far-side gravity field is thus only poorly characterized. The gravitational acceleration on the surface of the Moon is 1.63 m/s2, about 16.7% that on Earth's surface. Because weight is directly dependent upon gravitational acceleration, things on the Moon will weigh only 16.7% of what they weigh on the Earth.