Proton, Neutron, Electron, and the moon

I still remember those days when I learned science/ "Sains Teras" (I never take physics or chemistry in high-school. I never take a formal chemistry course in my entire life). In the modern atom model (that is, Bohr-Rutherford atom model), we have three curious elements: proton, neutron and electron.

I've so far underestimated what all these means really. And what profound impact in my life. Actually, these particles are not the only basic particles that we have in our universe. There are also some of the particles like neutrinos, muons, etc. However, I've never learned this before in Malaysian high-school, so I didn't know their existence till very recently.

Anyway, I'm constantly fascinated with these three basic elements of an atom. Think about it, how could protons and neutrons have such a very strong binding energy, while electrons, with sufficient force applied to it, can move freely and join another atom structure. When they move around, they create the electric current that power up our daily lives. Think of a day without these electrons going around. Can you imagine that?? Think about the fascination that's going on here. I haven't gone to the magnetic field.

These things amazed me all the time.

First of all - binding energy between proton and neutron. Why the binding energy? Why these two elements are bounded with a very strong energy? Where is the energy comes from in the first place? Why proton and neutron has to be together, while electron can go as freely as it likes? Does this bother you? I mean, not in a negative way, but in a fascinating way.

Can we split the proton and neutron? (Yes, if you split these two element, you'll release the binding energy, and if you can produce a "chain reaction" that is, splitting the next atom and again and again, you've successfully produced the powerful "atomic bomb").

I used to think that the electrons that orbiting the neutrons and protons in an atom is something similar to the moon circulating the earth. However, to think in parallel of atom model, what's the probability that the moon can go off track and go some other planet's gravitational force and stick with the planet? Is that possible? It may be possible to likened the moon and the earth as the electron and proton. But how about the binding energy? Where do we want to put the neutron, which the mass, is somewhat equal to the proton? How about the radiation effect that we detected in radium,etc?

It turns out that these two models (atom and planetary) are not equivalent. There may look the same (if you think about it), but moon is unlikely to go off track and go to Uranus. (Unless God wants it).

Here's a hypothetical, or maybe a sci-fi question for you: Given the knowledge of atom properties, can we move the moon (I mean the earth's moon that we see at night) somewhere else? Maybe make earth's gravitational force so big (definitely bigger than 9.8 m/s₂ ) so that it comes nearer?

At any rate, my childhood dream has always been to go to the moon. I wish I can get there.