Corrected entry: In the scenes where the vehicle is rolling on the moon surface, you can see the dust trail behind the vehicle's wheels. However, on the moon, in the absence of atmosphere, the dust should actually fall straight on the ground, immediately. This computer generated effect was added to make it look real, but it makes it physically inaccurate.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Correction: The gravity on the moon is 1/6th of that on earth so objects (including dust) fall back to the furface of the moon slower than on earth. The fact that there is no atmosphere would not make ojects fall instantly back down. Check out Nasa video of real moon rovers in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_YhYBxjpQU.
Particle don't fall back slower, but with a constant g/6 acceleration pointing down, which doesn't appear in the movie. In fact, the total time spent in a parabola that extends L=2m above ground due to an acceleration g is 2 times square root of 2L/g, which is 3.3s in moon's gravity. So the dust trail should disappear completely at the spot the rover was 3.3s before.
gaelito