Newton’s Laws and the Lunar Landing

Introduction: In this simulation, you will

experience Newton’s Laws from the standpoint of

operating a spacecraft in a frictionless

environment. You will learn how to pilot a lunar

Lander, also called a Lunar Excursion Module or

Lunar Module (LEM, LM) and land that craft on

the surface of the moon. However, just like Neil

Armstrong in 1969, you will have a limited amount

of fuel and time before you will have to find a safe

place to land the LM or suffer the consequences.

Objectives:

● To gain an understanding of objects in motion in a straight line will only change their path

if a force is applied according to Newton’s 1 st Law

● To understand the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration according to

Newton’s 2 nd Law.

● To learn the concepts of action/reaction forces according to Newton’s 3 rd Law.

● To apply the DVAT equations to new situations.

Procedure:

Familiarize yourself with the controls of the LM. Take a few minutes and play around with the

Lander to see how it operates. If you can land your craft in between tighter boulders, you can get a

higher score. Try flying horizontally and see what happens. Try boosting the LM at full thrust

vertically upward and see what happens. Turn on the vector display so that you will visualize the

factors acting on your Lander. Note that you can pause the program at any time to collect data!

solve the questions at the file below