July 19th 2009 - From Moon to Earth

[Vivian]

I couldn't understand the article clearly...
confusing...

[apodman]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090719.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/ ... sa_big.jpg

I couldn't understand the article clearly...
confusing...

Maybe too many parts ...

Introduction Part 1

After the most famous voyage of modern times, it was time to go home.

Introduction Part 2

After proving that humanity has the ability to go beyond the confines of planet Earth, the first humans to walk on another world -- Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin -- flew the ascent stage of their Lunar Module back to meet Michael Collins in the moon-orbiting Command and Service Module.

Picture Description

Pictured above on 1969 July 21, the ascending spaceship was captured by Collins making its approach, with the Moon below, and Earth far in the distance.

Historical Note

Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of the first human moon landing.

Not Pictured - News of Newest Lunar Probe

Recently, NASA's moon-orbiting Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter sent back the first pictures of most of the Apollo landing sites -- including Apollo 11 -- with enough resolution to see the Lunar Module descent stages left behind.

---

Readers often complain about or question the lack of stars in photos from the moon. In this case, in the large photo at full size, there are plenty of stars for a change (and maybe some crap on the command module window as well).

[orin stepanek]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090719.html

A beautiful picture of the Lunar Lander taken by Collins when Armstrong and Aldrin left the moon 40 years ago. I think of it as the Model T of space travel. Now man is preparing to go back to the Moon.

http://www.space.com/news/050914_nasa_cev_update.html

Orin

[apodman]

I think of it as the Model T of space travel.

Very impressive, but would you fly in this crate with its foil-thin walls?

[orin stepanek]

They even had to jerry rig a switch on the control panel to get blast off from the moon. 8)

Orin

[neufer]

I think of it as the Model T of space travel.

Very impressive, but would you fly in this crate with its foil-thin walls?

<<A tin foil hat is a piece of headgear made from one or more sheets of aluminium foil or similar material. Alternatively it may be a conventional hat lined with foil. Some people wear the hats in the belief that they act to shield the brain from such influences as electromagnetic fields, or against mind control and/or mind reading.

The concept of wearing a tin foil hat for protection from such threats has become a popular stereotype and term of derision; the phrase serves as a byword for paranoia and is associated with conspiracy theorists. The reasons for their use include the supposed prevention of perceived harassment from governments, spies or paranormal beings. These draw on the stereotypical images of mind control operating by ESP or technological means, like microwave radiation. The effectiveness of tin foil hats is disputable, however the belief in their necessity is popularly associated with paranoia or mental illness.

_________ Scientific basis

The notion that a tin foil hat can significantly reduce the intensity of incident radio frequency radiation on the wearer's brain has some scientific validity, as the effect of strong radio waves has been documented for quite some time. A well constructed tin foil enclosure would approximate a Faraday cage, reducing the amount of (typically harmless) radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation inside. A common high school physics demonstration involves placing an AM radio on tin foil, and then covering the radio with a metal bucket. This leads to a noticeable reduction in signal strength. The efficiency of such an enclosure in blocking such radiation depends on the thickness of the tin foil, as dictated by the skin depth, the distance the radiation can propagate in a particular non-ideal conductor. For half-millimeter-thick tin foil, radiation above about 20 kHz (i.e., including both AM and FM bands) would be partially blocked, although it should be noted that tin foil is not sold in this thickness, and numerous layers of tin foil would be required to sustain this effect.

The effectiveness of the tin foil hat as electromagnetic shielding for stopping radio waves is greatly reduced by the fact that it is not a complete enclosure. Placing an AM radio under a metal bucket without a conductive layer underneath demonstrates the relative ineffectiveness of such a setup. Indeed, because the effect of an ungrounded Faraday cage is to partially reflect the incident radiation, a radio wave that is incident on the inner surface of the hat (i.e., coming from underneath the hat-wearer) would be reflected and partially 'focused' towards the user's brain. While tin foil hats may have originated in some understanding of the Faraday cage effect, the use of such a hat to attenuate radio waves belongs properly to the realm of pseudoscience.

A study by graduate students at MIT...

determined that a tin foil hat could either amplify or attenuate incoming radiation depending on frequency; the effect was observed to be roughly independent of the relative placement of the wearer and radiation source. At GHz wavelengths, the skin depth is less than the thickness of even the thinnest foil.

Tin foil hats are seen by some as a protective measure against the effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR). Despite some allegations that EMR exposure has negative health consequences, at this time, no link has been verifiably proven between the radio-frequency EMR that tin foil hats are meant to protect against and subsequent ill health.>>

[apodman]

tin ... is ... made from ... aluminium

Talk about your mystery science.

[neufer]

tin ... is ... made from ... aluminium

Talk about your mystery science.

I still say "steam shovel" ... don't you ?

[RonDavis]

The Sun is shining onto Earth from above, but onto the Moon from the left. Obviously, this picture is a clumsy fake. I have seen other pictures from the Apollo missions with a similar problem. Maybe that's why some people say the Moon landings never happened.

[apodman]

I still say "steam shovel" ... don't you?

And I still dial the phone and watch the tube. But I'm not the poster boy for modern living.

The Sun is shining onto Earth from above, but onto the Moon from the left. Obviously, this picture is a clumsy fake. I have seen other pictures from the Apollo missions with a similar problem. Maybe that's why some people say the Moon landings never happened.

You are delusional. Put your foil hat back on and leave us alone.

[neufer]

The Sun is shining onto Earth from above, but onto the Moon from the left. Obviously, this picture is a clumsy fake. I have seen other pictures from the Apollo missions with a similar problem. Maybe that's why some people say the Moon landings never happened.

• The Sun was shining on Tranquility Sea,
  Shining with all his might:
  He did his very best to make
  The craters rough and bright -
  And this was odd, because it was
  The middle of the night.
  
  The moon was shining sulkily,
  Because she thought that Ron
  Had got no business to be there
  After the day was done -
  'It's very rude of him,' she said,
  'To come and spoil the fun!'

[The Code]

The shadow on the right is the command mod window ledge. The sun is up top and consistent with the shadows on the lunar mod. I watched this live on tv when i was five years old. And i never stopped wanting to understand more. well done guys.

Mark

[apodman]

The shadow on the right is the command mod window ledge.

Of course it is. Anyone who would mistake the window edge for the terminator and conclude the sunlight on the moon is coming from the left is missing several obvious clues:

- The terminator would not be straight; it would follow a great circle across the surface of the moon.
- The terminator would not be smooth; it would cross peaks and valleys, leaving irregular shadows as it crossed surface features.
- The terminator would not make a sudden turn at the bottom of the picture as the window frame does. You can also see the bluish tint of the glass* at the edge of the window turning the corner with the frame.
- Craters on the moon are uniformly filled with light from above, with their left and right interior walls equally lit and casting no shadows.

* The cabin has five windows, made of 0.25-inch (6.35mm) double-paned tempered glass on the inside, and 0.7-inch (1.778cm) amorphous-fused silicon on the outside. UV-ray blocking coating is applied in these outer surfaces, and non-reflective coating to the inside.

[neufer]

- The terminator would not be smooth; it would cross peaks and valleys,
leaving irregular shadows as it crossed surface features.

Like this : Apollo 11 landing site.

[geckzilla]

The Sun is shining onto Earth from above, but onto the Moon from the left. Obviously, this picture is a clumsy fake. I have seen other pictures from the Apollo missions with a similar problem. Maybe that's why some people say the Moon landings never happened.

I have a science experiment for you. Wait till after dark, turn off all the lights in your room except for your computer screen, close your left eye, and use your right hand to occlude the right half of your right eye and observe the blurry transition between your hand and your computer monitor. Your hand should be touching your cheek and your eyebrow. And there you have it, you've managed to recreate one of the primary methods NASA used to make it look like they faked the moon landings! Amazing!

[The Code]

And there you have it, you've managed to recreate one of the primary methods NASA used to make it look like they faked the moon landings! Amazing!

Run that past me again?

[apodman]

Run that past me again?

Sarcasm, satire, sardonic wit. If you don't have it when you move to NYC, you acquire it soon afterward. Some use or to indicate their intent, but it's not really dry humor if you do. Truly, if you want to be clumsy about it as Ron suggests, you should poke yourself in the eye when you attempt to create the fake shadow. If you want to make a clumsy shadow rabbit on the wall, you can poke yourself in both eyes. If Ron's eyes are green it is more likely with envy than from poking, as going to the moon and back (so far accomplished only by you-know-who) was so far the coolest thing done in the history of the human race.

[geckzilla]

Yeah, I thought it would be fun to turn it around and work the conspiracy theorists into those dastardly NASA scientists' plans of increasing their publicity for free by deliberately throwing in a few things to give any nut something to work with. Genius!