<P> The acceleration due to gravity on the surface of the Moon is about 1.625 m / s, about 16.6% that on Earth's surface or 0.16 ɡ . Over the entire surface, the variation in gravitational acceleration is about 0.0253 m / s (1.6% of the acceleration due to gravity). Because weight is directly dependent upon gravitational acceleration, things on the Moon will weigh only 16.6% of what they weigh on the Earth . </P> <P> The gravitational field of the Moon has been measured by tracking the radio signals emitted by orbiting spacecraft . The principle used depends on the Doppler effect, whereby the line - of - sight spacecraft acceleration can be measured by small shifts in frequency of the radio signal, and the measurement of the distance from the spacecraft to a station on Earth . Since the gravitational field of the Moon affects the orbit of a spacecraft, one can use these tracking data to detect gravity anomalies . However, because of the Moon's synchronous rotation it is not possible to track spacecraft from Earth much beyond the limbs of the Moon, so until the recent GRAIL mission the far - side gravity field was not accurately known . </P>

What is the gravitational acceleration on the moon