Why eclipses as the Sunday concerned NASA

Throughout Sunday night and Monday morning, much of the world, including the Americas, will have the opportunity to enjoy the rare spectacle of a total eclipse of the Moon together and the Supermoon event.

The total eclipse should leave the Moon completely in the shadows, because the Earth is between her and the sun. Already Supermoon happens when the full or new moon is at its closest point to Earth.

For astronomy enthusiasts these events will be beautiful. But for the US space agency, NASA, is cause for concern.

Scientists fear that the lack of sunlight due to the eclipse leave without energy one of its most important spacecraft, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), whose mission is to explore and monitor the natural satellite of Earth.

"Two things happen during an eclipse:. Is very cold and there is no light to charge the batteries (the ship) With the eclipse, the spacecraft will run out of direct sunlight for about three hours," he told the BBC the scientist NASA Noah Petro.


Despite the fear of NASA, the US space agency has passed successfully for another three lunar eclipses in the last 17 months.

"It's always stressful when the eclipse is approaching, but follow the same procedures and had no problem," said Dawn Myers, the center of space flight Goddard, which is part of NASA.

Red Moon

The total eclipse should last over an hour. The moon also will get a reddish color because its surface is illuminated by faint rays that reflect the Earth's atmosphere.

The generating concern at NASA is that similar technologies to the LRO faced difficulties during past eclipses. However, LRO is designed specifically with these problems in mind.

"Usually the LRO recharges the batteries with sunlight, so when we have an eclipse, we were very cautious about the ship," said Noah Petro.

But the scientist points out that NASA has experience in events like this and this time, you will take a few precautions.





"We preheat the ship and disconnect all instruments except one to maintain safe ship," he said. "As the mobile phone, every time I get the alert I have (20% of remaining battery), I can turn off the wi-fi or certain applications (to save energy)."

"We anticipate that everything will go normally. We will be prepared and ready to face (the eclipse). Let's look at the levels of the batteries and we are ready to act if something does not go as planned. We will ensure that (the ship) exit the eclipse in good shape "he said.

The next total lunar eclipse to occur in 2018 and a lunar eclipse and simultaneous Supermoon should only occur in 2033.
And although the phenomenon is called Supermoon, will not be seen such an extraordinary difference.

"It's not like the difference between an ordinary man and Superman. It is a slightly larger moon, instead of Supermoon" said Alan MacRobert, one of the editors specializing in astronomy Sky & Telescope.
Specifically, it will wear a moon 14% bigger and 30% brighter than normal full moon.