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Originally Posted by adman
I get the concept of something having rotational and translational components to its movement - i just don't think the moon has a rotational one  |
It depends on your frame of reference.
In their orbit around the Earth, both the Moon and the die/shuttle will have axial rotation relative to the distant stars. Relative to the Earth they may appear to have no axial rotation. As both Bojan and Steffen indicated, if the Earth were suddenly removed from the equation, the Moon would continue in orbit about the Sun but still have an axial rotation relative to the stars. And so would the die/shuttle.
Regards, Rob