Rory McIlroy may hit a lunar golf ball a staggering 4,582 yards, or 2.60 miles.
Picture specialist Andy Saunders analyzed archival stills taken by the astronauts and was capable of measure the space of Shepard’s second shot. Credit score: NASA/JSC/ASU/Andy Saunders
Some 50 years in the past, Alan Shepard hit some golf balls on the Moon through the Apollo 14 mission. Simply how far may a tour professional hit a golf ball on the Moon in the event that they weren’t encumbered by a spacesuit?
Jim Knoll
Vancouver, Washington
Alan Shepard shanked his first shot right into a crater, however estimated that his second reached a distance of about 200 yards (183 meters). Nonetheless, proof from photographs taken through the mission and remastered in 2021 means that Shepard managed to solely hit his second golf ball some 40 yards (36.5 m).
To be honest, Shepard was restricted by extra than simply his cumbersome spacesuit. His makeshift golf membership wasn’t precisely regulation — only a 6-iron head connected to a collapsible instrument designed to scoop lunar rocks.
An unencumbered golfer on the Moon would definitely be capable of do a lot better. In accordance with PGA Tour stats, execs averaged 299.9 yards (274.2 m) per drive through the just-finished 2022–2023 season. If they may replicate the identical ballstriking approach on the Moon, how a lot farther may they drive a ball?
To calculate that, we’ve got to dive deeper into the stats. For this previous season, the typical tour professional was imparting a ball speed of 172.85 mph (278.18 km/h) and launching the ball at an angle of 10.49° off the tee. Factoring in lunar gravity — roughly one-sixth that of Earth’s — the legal guidelines of projectile movement inform us that a median tour professional’s tee shot would carry about 1,a quarter mile (1,317 m).
The dearth of air on the Moon hurts distance (a bit)
Now, you might have observed that regardless of the Moon having solely one-sixth the gravitational pull of Earth, the space we’ve calculated for an equal lunar tee shot is considerably much less than six occasions the space of the typical tour drive, which might be roughly 1,800 yards (1,646 m]. That’s as a result of on Earth, air helps a golf ball fly farther: a golf membership imparts backspin to a ball, which permits the ball to generate aerodynamic raise and retains it aloft. The low launch angle of a driver is probably the most environment friendly method to maximize that raise whereas additionally minimizing drag alongside the ball’s trajectory. So whereas the Moon’s decreased gravity helps a ball journey farther, maybe counterintuitively, the shortage of air on the Moon reduces that distance acquire — no less than when assuming that our lunar golfer is utilizing tools and producing launch angles and ball speeds much like these on Earth.
With the intention to actually exploit the shortage of air resistance on the Moon, a golfer would wish to launch a ball on the superb ballistic angle of 45° — whereas additionally sustaining ball pace. That’s trickier than merely deciding on a membership with extra loft: A extra lofted membership would slide underneath the ball and impart extra backspin, changing much less of the vitality of the influence into ball pace. Our golfer would most likely must discover a method to anchor themselves on a lunar upslope to let a driver rip whereas additionally reaching a forty five° launch angle.
But when a professional have been in a position to take action and obtain the tour common ball pace of 172.85 mph (278.18 km/h), the ball would journey about 4,023 yards or 2.29 miles (3.69 km). The tour’s longest hitter, Rory McIlroy, together with his common ball pace of 184.47 mph (296.88 km/h), may hit a lunar golf ball even farther: 4,582 yards, or 2.60 miles (4.19 km).
Mark Zastrow
Senior Editor
