Earth Moon Comparison May 09, 2001 The above image shows the
Earth and the moon as viewed from the Odyssey spacecraft on its
journey to Mars. Even though the Earth and its satellite look
pretty small (the moon is a mere speck), at the time this
photograph was taken (late April), Odyssey was more than 15
times closer to the Earth than to Mars - it was 4,639,830 km
(2,883,050 miles) from Earth. The spacecraft won't arrive at
Mars until October 24 - it was launched on April 7. Odyssey
carries three scientific instruments designed to tell us what
the Martian surface is made of and its radiation environment.
This image shows the true distance relationship between the
Earth and the moon as well as the size difference comparison.
Earth and its satellite are approximately 385,000 km apart -
about 30 Earth diameters. Odyssey is traveling at a speed of 3.3
kilometers per second (7,474 miles per hour) relative to the
Earth. Even though the Earth has a diameter of 12,756 km
compared to a diameter of 3,476 for that of the