Talk:Lunar orbit

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[edit] Lunar orbit and Orbit of the Moon

The question keeps popping up briefly whether this page should be merged with The Moon's orbit. I say no: "The Moon's orbit" deals with the orbit of the Moon around Earth (and Sun); this page deals with orbits around the Moon. Two different things, so two lemmata. Tom Peters 11:30, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

The problem is that the term "lunar orbit" (for many) more logically applies to the orbit of the Moon about the Earth. I think that this page should be renamed something else that is more descriptive, though I am at a loss as to what this should be. Perhaps we should ask what the purpose of this page is. Is it artificial satelites of the Moon? Or oribial dynamics of orbits about the Moon? etc... Lunokhod 12:27, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

But the fact remains that the term "lunar orbit" is an existing technical term that has specifically been used for "orbit around the Moon", not "orbit of the Moon", as explained immediately on this page. I know that Wikipedia is not a dictionary, but these are two different things and deserve separate pages. Also you are welcome to use a better word, but I seriously object to using descriptive phrases in the Wikipedia. For example, The moon's orbit and The orbit of the moon, and all their permutations of capitalization, are all different potential page names for the same subject. I have seen examples of people writing pages on the same subject under slightly different names, and it takes a while before anyone notices and makes a merge - if ever. But again, I think in this case there are two different subjects, whatever their lemmata. Tom Peters 12:48, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Without a preposition or qualifier, the term, as is, is ambiguous. For instance "the lunar orbit" is clearly the orbit of the Moon about the Earth. Other examples in common use are "the semi-major axis of the lunar orbit" and "the precession of the lunar orbit plane." Alternatively, "in lunar orbit" could refer to a satellite in orbit about the Moon. I don't know the solution to this problem, as I agree the two are different, but this is why this subject apparently keeps popping up. In my opinion, "As used in the space program, this refers not to the orbit of Earth's Moon" is not true without adding some kind of qualifier. Lunokhod 13:07, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Tom Peters, keep it as a seperate article. This article is really about human spacecraft not about the Moon proper or its orbit.Abebenjoe 17:56, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unit consistency

Is there any reason we have no unit consistency? It's difficult to compare the Soviet lunar orbits to the American ones because the Soviet orbits are given in km and the American ones are given in miles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.91.192.103 (talk) 20:24, 26 November 2007 (UTC)