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How long does it take to travel to the moon?
- Traveling to the moon can take up to 4.5 months.
- The fastest spacecraft to pass by the moon was NASA's New Horizon probe, which took 8 hours and 35 minutes from launch.
- In 1959, the Soviet Union's Luna 1 reached the moon in 34 hours in humanity's first ever moon mission.
- The Apollo 11 crew took 109 hours and 42 minutes from liftoff to the first step on the moon.
- The amount of fuel used is a major variable in travel time, as using less fuel can take longer but still gets the job done.
- NASA's CAPSTONE probe, which took 4.5 months to reach the moon, holds the record for the longest journey.
- Most of the fuel is used to escape Earth's gravity and achieve optimal trajectory.
- Apollo 11 needed to complete a series of checks before leaving Earth's gravity and had a more precise lunar orbit trajectory, which accounted for the longer travel time.
- Mission objectives such as the type of rockets available and spacecraft sizing inform the optimal trajectory, which impacts travel time.
- Precise calculations about craft size, crew size, fuel allocation, and every other possible detail can have an impact on total travel time to the moon.
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