Moon is about to take a hit of more than 3 tons of space junk deployed by humans on its far side. The far side of the moon is hidden and untraceable to telescopes. Although, several satellites and rockets are revolving around the moon’s orbit to track activities happening in that arena.
If you are wondering where that load of junk came from, then you should know that no space agency or nation is willing to take responsibility for the collision. Although many independent space research groups have come to a conclusion saying that the object about to crash onto the moon’s surface is a Chinese aircraft named Change’s 5-T1.
China had sent a similar aircraft for a lunar mission in the year 2014. Many agencies have confirmed that the shadow of the object as seen from the sunrays proves that the object is made with Chinese parts.
Earlier, Elon Musk’s SpaceX was being targeted for the object that is about to crash on the moon’s surface. Later, after a NASA engineer working in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory questioned the claim, it was found that it was a Chinese rocket launched a decade back, not SpaceX’s.
The impact of this collision on the moon’s surface will not be very huge. The junk will crash on the lunar surface at a speed of 5,800 mph on 4th March (anticipated) and create a crater of about 10-15 meters.
Although, the debris will revolve around the moon’s orbit for no less than 60 years. Moon does not have any layer of protection like earth, in its atmosphere. This is why it is open to all kinds of natural and artificial hits.
Scientists and space agencies have many times crashed objects on the moon’s surface, on intention, and by mistake. Intentionally, if the orbiter or the satellite runs out of fuel, or malfunctions, then instead of leaving it revolving in the orbit, the object is crashed on the moon’s surface.
In this case, the object was not meant to go to the moon’s surface. So, this may just be the first instance when human-made space debris has made its way to the moon and crashed.
Although the timing of the crash is known, there are fewer chances for the scientists and space agencies to take a real look at the event. Because the object is supposed to fall on the far side of the moon.
Officially, no real team or agency is working on looking out for the debris falling over the surface of the moon; just a few independent space enthusiasts have made it their job to keep track of such events.
Since tracking space debris for years and decades is not an easy job and is not considered very fruitful in providing new knowledge to scientists, no one bothers about such collisions.
It may also be a positive thing that the public itself, is capable of tracking such events on the moon’s surface. But it also bridges a gap between the facts and fake information, as there is no official agency involved to confirm the happenings of such events.