#off topic# Did Appolo go to the moon?

[sinusoidal]

My answer is no and should the answer be indeed no, isn't it about time to come clean, before the Chinese find no Stars and Stripes on moon? I'll appreciate opinions of scientists and please, no trolling.

[Samuel Nathan Richards]

Yes... I worked with someone who uses the mirrors placed on the surface by the Apollo Astronauts. Whether the flag is still waving i'm not sure, but someone must have aligned the mirrors.

[astrotech]

This is a joke, right? There are people in todays society that believe we did not go to the moon? I guess aliens built the first McDonalds as well?

[Alice@wonderland]

It is unlikely Apollo has reached the moon. My Physics collegue has shown me a simple calculation that Apollo's interior space was way too small to carry the oxygen tank needed for the duration of the round trip (Apollo wasn't equipped with oxegen generator) Other numerous controversies include that a rather thin protection of Apollo craft couldn't have protected human crew from Van Allen radiation belt and 60's CPU power was way too low to be on top of ever-changing trajectory. My vote is NO.

* The mirror thing is also controversial since reflection from the moon had long been studied way before Apollo mission. After all if one can pinpoint a laser to a small artificial mirror on the moon, how is it that no 3D laser scanners were able to pick up any outline of any materials allegedly left there?

My take is that Apollo has reached certain distance to the moon and the rest was staged in hollywood set.

Having said that I also believe it wasn't just US but also the former USSR that were exaggerating achievements, which ironically forced both countries to keep the mouth shut.

Intersting read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_moon_landing_hoax_accusations

[Jerry]

Holy Crap Alice!!!
US and Russia did not go to moon?? I guess we have not really invented the airplane or sailed across the Atlantic. What an epic failure you have going on between your ears!!!
Your gene pool needs some chlorine.

[Alice@wonderland]

apparently yours has been soaked in it minus the 21st one.

[ruach]

I doubt this will make an impression on someone willing to believe that the moon landings were bogus but if you believe Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin not only were they on the moon but there is an explanation as to why the flag appears to be "waving" in a non-exsistent breeze:

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin recalled what happened when they tried to set up the flag: “It took both of us to set it up and it was nearly a public relations disaster, “ he wrote, “ a small telescoping arm was attached to the flagpole to keep the flag extended and perpendicular. As hard as we tried, the telescope wouldn't fully extend. Thus the flag which should have been flat had its own permanent wave


PS If and when people return to that particular landing spot, they might not see it standing uprigt:

It is uncertain if the flag remained standing or was blown over the by engine blast when the ascent module took off to return the crew back to Earth. The lunar surface was barely holding the flag upright enough to begin with, it is unlikely that the flag is still upright.

PSS Why you can't see the flag with your own telescope.

Not even the most powerful telescopes ever made are able to see these objects. The flag on the moon is 125cm (4 feet) long. You would require a telescope around 200 meters in diameter to see it. The largest telescope now is the Keck Telescope in Hawaii at 10meters in diameter. Even the Hubble Space telescope is only 2.4 meters in diameter. Resolving the lunar rover, which is 3.1 meters in length, would require a telescope 75 meters in diameter. So our backyard 6 inch and 8 inch telescopes are not even going to come close!


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Magic,Mystery,Murder,Mayhem

[Alice@wonderland]

3D laser scanners and optical telescopes are two different things

[ruach]

Please enlighten me. I'm aware that marvelous terrestial work has been done using 3D laser scanners but wasn't aware that there were any datasets of the moon that would show an object as small as the flag or the rover.

Magic,Mystery,Murder,Mayhem

[Alice@wonderland]

Learn about laser (Doesn't need a laser-sharp mind to do so)

[CHRISTOPHER]

I truly believe we did land on the moon,but my beef is more with the person who thinks that NASA relied on cpu's
alone.I think you would be amazed at how fast someone using a sliderule and a calculator [ I'm showing my age here]
can project and make corrections in trajectory.I would be like saying Christopher Columbus didn't discover the NEW
WORLD because he didn't have GPS.
The Internet Generation has forgotten so much. LONG LIVE THE ABACUS !!!

[RollOrDont]

You're right -- Appolo didn't go to the moon.

There were several Apollo missions, however, that went instead.

[ruach]

This discussion is being bumped to move the spammers down to at least the second page