On Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:00:21 -0400, in a place far, far away,
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:

On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 14:30:16 GMT, h (Rand
Simberg) wrote:


It doesn't have to lose any energy at all (and in fact
doesn't--orbital motion is conservative). All it has to do is
increase the eccentricity to the point at which perilune goes below
the lunar surface (or just a mountain).

But would this **always** happen if a LM were left in orbit?

It depends on how low an orbit it is. The LM was sufficiently low
that, yes, it would *always* happen over time.

Is this increase in eccentricity something that is guaranteed to
happen? Or happens only depending on resulting geometry?

For example, if a LM was left in orbit where external mass
distributions were in opposition, so to speak, would we find that the
LM would effectively orbit forever then? For example, I'm thinking of
the case when the moon's geometric centre was directly between the LM
and moon's mascons, and the earth and sun.
Now the LM at release should be at it's lowest possible point to the
lunar surface.
And hence from this position the LM could orbit basically forever?

Guess I'm trying to build a case where a LM could basically orbit
forever. Is this possible then?

It is so unlikely as to be impossible, yes.