I've been poking around the moon between losses in the Iron matches. (Bungie, please give some rep even for a loss, it's killing me that no matter how well I do I can't get a win at all)

There are dead astronauts all over. In nooks and crannies. Some trapped by falling debris, others with shattered faceplates. It makes the fall of the moon seem much more recent, more visceral. The imagery on the moon is far better then the cosmodrome. The shattered space station over head, the dead, the occasional comet or satellite streaking by all give it an unreal atmosphere. If you look closely you can see Mars.

Overall it brings up more questions. Did humans use the lunar accelerators as weapons? Why would you do so if you had FTL ships? The armor of the astronauts, the vehicles and the space station seem very modern day as opposed to a golden age sci-fy world. Everything looks like it could have been built today. Did the Traveler's arrival make the Moon a backwater in favor of Mars and Venus?

And if you watch it, the Earth rotates

And if you watch it, the Earth rotates

Annoyingly fast, IMO. It's making me dizzy.

There are also HUGE piles of bones in the Hellmouth.

Did humans use the lunar accelerators as weapons? Why would you do so if you had FTL ships?

The accelerators are probably used as mass drivers for whatever they're mining or refining on the Moon. Even with access to FTL tech, it's still a very cheap and cost-effective way to get things into orbit or to Earth without having to build large cargo ships. Instead of having to carry something in a ship, it's easier to fire a large cargo out of a mass driver and nudge it in the proper orbit to get it where you need it to go.

As a weapon, it wouldn't be too effective because you couldn't aim the assembly when it's anchored to the surface like we saw in the beta. I'd also really hate to fire something at a ship in orbit around Earth and miss my target; something traveling as fast as something out of a mass driver would leave a pretty nasty impact crater.

I have suspected for a while now that that's probably how the Hive are launching those large spike things that you see. Maybe this prepares the way for them, beachhead style.

If the target is as big as the Traveler, then it doesn't seem as far fetched, and if you are sufficiently desperate enough it is worth a shot.

Also, the difference in what your gear, which is the most advanced old technology that can be supported by the crypt-archs looks and the old astronauts seems incongruent. They all look to be wearing the same gear that the astronauts in the intro movie are wearing. If they died during the fall, they are wearing centuries old suits. Why? It isn't like we've got a bunch of muzzle loaders sitting around in mothball yards in case all the worlds M-16s break.