Shooting stars on the moon... (Destiny)
by Postmortem 
, AZ, Monday, October 13, 2014, 07:21 (3932 days ago)
I was patrolling the Moon today, looking at the beautiful skybox, with its satellites and shootings stars, when I stopped to think to myself... how does that actually work?
Shooting stars are space rocks burning up in our atmosphere. Now, I don't know much about the nature of the moon, as I have yet to go there myself in real life, but knowing that it has far less atmosphere than the Earth, doesn't this mean that there wouldn't be visible shooting stars from the surface of the moon? I imagine it would just be really fast rocks slamming into the surface, not on "fire".
Another gift from the Traveler, along with normalized gravity across all the planets?
It's not our Moon anymore
by Anton P. Nym (aka Steve) 
, London, Ontario, Canada, Monday, October 13, 2014, 07:49 (3932 days ago) @ Postmortem
I was patrolling the Moon today, looking at the beautiful skybox, with its satellites and shootings stars, when I stopped to think to myself... how does that actually work?
The Moon clearly has some sort of atmosphere now. We can hear gunfire, capes swirl, water remains liquid in areas not sealed off from the surface. So shooting stars are far more explainable than the massive uptick in gravity.
Another gift from the Traveler, along with normalized gravity across all the planets?
I blame the Hive. All those cracks in the lunar surface near the Hellmouth visibly emitting particulates...
-- Steve gathers the Hive isn't particularly environmentally friendly.
It's not our Moon anymore
by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Monday, October 13, 2014, 10:42 (3932 days ago) @ Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)
I was patrolling the Moon today, looking at the beautiful skybox, with its satellites and shootings stars, when I stopped to think to myself... how does that actually work?
The Moon clearly has some sort of atmosphere now. We can hear gunfire, capes swirl, water remains liquid in areas not sealed off from the surface. So shooting stars are far more explainable than the massive uptick in gravity.
But it's still preposterous. For there to be an atmosphere the traveler would have to:
1. Somehow cause the moon to become geologically active and restart core dynamo giving rise to a strong magnetic field. Without this, solar wind would strip away any atmosphere.
2. Physically put atmospheric gasses onto the moon.
It's not our Moon anymore
by Anton P. Nym (aka Steve) , London, Ontario, Canada, Monday, October 13, 2014, 13:10 (3932 days ago) @ Cody Miller
But it's still preposterous. For there to be an atmosphere the traveler would have to:
Firstly, you should note I said that it was the Hive that created the atmosphere, not the Traveler. The Traveler's hallmark is bringing life to lifeless regions; if big-T'd put an atmosphere on the Moon it'd be likely s/he'd also have brought grass, trees, insects, and the like too. We see none of that, just regolith.
1. Somehow cause the moon to become geologically active and restart core dynamo giving rise to a strong magnetic field. Without this, solar wind would strip away any atmosphere.
Solar wind will strip away the atmosphere over lengthy timeframes. Not in the few centuries since the Collapse, but in tens or hundreds of millennia.
2. Physically put atmospheric gasses onto the moon.
Or, say, extract them from materials present on the Moon already... which is what I propose actually happened. My guess is that the atmosphere came from waste gases created from tunnelling through all that Moon rock.
Besides, that the Moon in Destiny has an observable atmosphere isn't up for debate; look up during dawn or dusk and you can see the blue tint of atmospheric scattering of the light.
-- Steve doesn't think it's as dense as our atmosphere, but in game there's some sort of gaseous envelope around the Moon.
Errrr, Cody?
by ZackDark , Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Tuesday, October 14, 2014, 08:23 (3931 days ago) @ Cody Miller
Shooting stars on the moon...
Seem to recall that in the cut-scene for the first time we visit the moon, your ship heats up upon atmospheric entry. Remembered thinking that was a little weird, what with no atmosphere on the moon.
Shooting stars on the moon...
by Numinar , Monday, October 13, 2014, 09:08 (3932 days ago) @ Postmortem
That space station in geostationary orbit annoys me. If Kerbal has taught me anything, it is that that thing should be falling straight down with an orbital speed of zero!
Come on Bungie, leave me a dead Ghost somewhere explaining how the Hive did it with magics. Or something.
Shooting stars on the moon...
That space station in geostationary orbit annoys me. If Kerbal has taught me anything, it is that that thing should be falling straight down with an orbital speed of zero!
Come on Bungie, leave me a dead Ghost somewhere explaining how the Hive did it with magics. Or something.
It's called geostationary orbit and it's a thing. Stationary over the planet does not imply an orbital speed of zero unless the planet in question has no spin. That said, it would have to be over the equator, and I haven't honestly paid enough attention to know whether it's plausibly over the equator or not.
Shooting stars on the moon...
by Numinar , Monday, October 13, 2014, 15:49 (3931 days ago) @ Earendil
Yes, it is a thing. I mentioned it in the post. I think I spelled it right.
That station should be hurtling around at 5000kmh or something ridiculous at that altitude, or just crashing. Probably crashing. Apollo program satellites crashed in a matter of months due to the uneven gravity of the moon, but maybe the Hive fixed that.
One website I read mentioned Lagrange points, but they are also miles away and the Station would have to be in the realm of Halo-scale to be appear that big.
Looks awesome though. Lets assume space magic!
Shooting stars on the moon...
by ZackDark , Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Monday, October 13, 2014, 16:48 (3931 days ago) @ Earendil
Yeah, the stationary orbit for the Moon, even given its low gravity (which is not low at all in Destiny...) would still be way farther than that station is.
My headcannon is that it is suspended in a magnetic envelope. Or space magic. As if they were any different...
Orbits and rotations of planetary bodies and such.
by red robber , Crawfish Country, Tuesday, October 14, 2014, 00:03 (3931 days ago) @ Earendil
The moon rotates on its axis only once every 27 days, so I don't think that is fast enough for an object to have enough speed to create a geosynchronous orbit. At least not for a space station sized object that appears so close to the moons surface. But I'm a doctor not a physicist.
Shooting stars on the moon...
by TTL Demag0gue , Within the shadow of the Traveler, Tuesday, October 14, 2014, 09:30 (3931 days ago) @ Numinar
There's a whole lot of things about Destiny's astronomy that bug me -- that I've had to force myself to explain away with a lot of hand waving, artistic license, and "Space Magic!" in order to effectively ignore. At this point, with the state of the story such as it is, an ISP in geosynchronous orbit around the Moon is the least of my concerns. :)