posted 09-20-2011 02:50 AM               

The search for Snoopy: Astronomers and students to look for lost Apollo 10 module

Okay kids, here's your homework: using robotically-controlled telescopes, search the sky for the only U.S. once-manned moon craft to still be in space: the Apollo 10 lunar module "Snoopy."

If that sounds like a challenge, it is because it is. Acknowledging the difficulty, the Faulkes Telescope Project still hopes to enlist hundreds of UK schools to find the spent stage more than four decades after it was left to circle the Sun.

Along the way, the astronomers hope to locate other rocket parts as well as perhaps discover new asteroids and comets...

posted 09-20-2011 09:04 AM               

If material samples were taken from spent rocket stages and spacecraft like Snoopy, the samples could be returned to Earth to get an idea of what extreme long duration space exposure outside of Earth orbit can do to the hardware. As such, such data could be useful in helping the building of future spacecraft.

It would be similar in idea to what the LDEF from the early shuttle days was. LDEF was aloft for about four years and returned a mountain of data. Imagine what 40 to 50 years of space exposure could provide in terms of data.

posted 09-20-2011 05:52 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Jay Chladek:
Well, don't tell Hollywood or they might use it as an idea for the next science fiction horror movie...

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posted 09-21-2011 08:58 AM               

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Originally posted by Space Cadet Carl:
John Young always joked about the fact that his DNA is still orbiting the Sun

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posted 04-02-2019 07:52 AM               

What ultimately became of the 2011 efforts to find Snoopy? Where would one start if one were attempting to find it? Why is the search area so large if the starting conditions are known?

posted 04-27-2019 01:43 PM               

...eight years later, there was one object that just looked odd.

"It was a very strange anomalous object in approximately the right orbit and exactly the right size. The radar data was completely whack, as one astronomer put it. It was like nothing we've ever seen. We're 99 percent convinced we've got it[," said Nick Howes, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.]

At this distance, the only way to be absolutely certain it is Snoopy is to go up and get it. As far as Mr. Howes is concerned the argument for doing so is compelling. "To recover one [lunar module] that is intact, would be, I feel, quite special."

posted 04-28-2019 04:16 PM               

In 1969, the Apollo 10 crew ejected the lunar module 'Snoopy' from the Apollo command module into a heliocentric orbit never to be seen again – or so they thought. Nick Howes, along with legendary flight controllers, space dynamics experts and astronauts from the Apollo programme, has spent a number of years in a calculated hunt for the errant lunar module. Join him to hear the tales of the hunt and the latest and exciting results of their search.

posted 04-29-2019 11:41 AM            

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Originally posted by rgarner:
...the possibility of Snoopy still being out there

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posted 06-10-2019 03:47 PM               

Nick Howes, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, said he is certain it has been found and all they need is someone to go and retrieve it. Mr Howes said he began the search for the module in 2011 and calculated the odds of finding it were 235 million to one. He and a team of astronomers analysed terabytes of radar data and in 2018 found what they believe is Snoopy.

"We are 98% convinced we have found it. Until someone goes out and gets it, we can't be 100% sure. Until someone gets really close to it and gets a detailed radar profile, we can't be sure," Mr Howes said. "We've got to wait quite a few years for it to come back but once it does come back the idea is that we are going to get a really detailed picture of it."

posted 06-11-2019 01:01 PM            

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Originally posted by Space Cadet Carl:
Someone should contact Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos about launching a probe to intercept Snoopy.

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posted 06-12-2019 10:40 AM               

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Originally posted by Headshot:
Something unique about its spectrum, or an unusually high radar return perhaps?

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posted 06-18-2019 10:07 AM               

Astronomers think they found the Apollo 10 Lunar Module in orbit around the sun. This is the only intact flown Lunar Module ascent stage, as all of the others crashed into the moon, or in the case of Apollo 9 and 13, burned up on reentry to Earth.

Certainly, Snoopy is one of the more curious objects man-made objects in solar orbit. Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, which SpaceX launched into solar orbit via its inaugural Falcon Heavy flight in 2018, probably wins for "most curious." Musk is a big fan of the Apollo program, so maybe a salvage isn't totally out of the question. The module has suffered from a half-century of continuous ultraviolet radiation exposure, but it should be relatively intact.