NASA | Landsat Looks to the Moon

The video explains the process of maneuvering a spacecraft at night to avoid sunlight, aligning instruments towards the Moon, and using a push broom instrument with detectors to scan the Moon. The scanning is done in a plow-like pattern over two orbits. The Moon is used as a stable reference to detect drifts in the instrument, ensuring accurate Earth observations.

What is the significance of the moon as a stable source for the spacecraft's observations?

Explain how the spacecraft determines if changes observed are due to the Earth or the instrument itself.