Biking to the Moon
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Susan Snow
As you watched October's
first Full Moon rise last night, the Full Moon
closest to the northern autumnal equinox, you were
probably asking yourself,
"How long would it take to bike to the Moon?"
Sure, Apollo 11 astronauts made the trip in 1969, from launch to
Moon landing,
in about 103 hours or 4.3 days.
But the Moon is 400,000 kilometers away.
This year, the top bike riders in planet Earth's well-known
Tour de France
race covered almost 3,500 kilometers in 21 stages after about
87 hours on the road.
That gives an average speed of about 40 kilometers per hour and a lunar
cycling travel time of 10,000 hours, a little over 416 days.
While this bike rider's
destination isn't clear, his journey did begin
around moonrise on September 27 near Cleeve Hill, Bishops Cleeve,
Cheltenham, UK.