from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/12/12/heres-your-proof-that-we-landed-on-the-moon-steph-curry/?sh=66c63b949d9b

Dec 12, 2018,01:45pm EST
Here's Your Proof That We Landed On The Moon, Steph Curry
Starts With A Bang
Ethan SiegelSenior Contributor
Starts With A BangContributor Group
Science
The Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it.

This article is more than 3 years old.

Apollo 11 brought humans onto the surface of the Moon for the first time
in 1969. Shown here is Buzz... [+] Aldrin setting up the Solar Wind
experiment as part of Apollo 11, with Neil Armstrong snapping the
photograph.

In all of human history, only 24 people have ever flown to the vicinity
of the Moon, traveling hundreds of thousands of miles from Earth to do
so. Twelve of those people, on six independent missions, actually set
foot on the lunar surface. We've left flags, photographs, seismometers,
mirrors, and even vehicles behind. We've brought back rocks, dirt, and
literal pieces of the Moon upon our return to Earth.

These monumental moments in history, of landing on the Moon in the late
1960s and early 1970s, are not a part of the memories of the vast
majority of people living today. Unsurprisingly, some of them are
skeptical that it ever happened. Thankfully, in science, we don't need
to be there ourselves to have proof. Here are four different pieces of
evidence we can point to that demonstrate the Moon landings actually
occurred.

This iconic image, taken by Neil Armstrong, shows Buzz Aldrin planting
the US flag on the Moon. Note... [+] the presence of footprints in the
foreground. These (and other) astronaut footprints, believe it or not,
are still visible today.

1.) Lunar footprints. Here on Earth, footprints generally don't last
very long. Wherever you leave your tracks, you fully expect that whether
it takes minutes, days, or weeks, eventually the natural phenomena in
the world will cover them up. Winds blowing along the sand dunes, rains
in the forest, or plant and animal activity will eventually eliminate
the evidence of your passing.

All of this happens for a variety of reasons, which include:

the fact that the Earth has an atmosphere,
that we have weather,
that we have liquid water at our surface,
and that we have living species on our world.
So if we walked on the Moon, we would expect those footprints to still
be there.

On Earth, footprints or other markings on the surface are only
temporary, and are easily erased by... [+] the winds, rains, and other
surface activity that comes about on a world with an atmosphere, oceans,
and life. On the Moon, however, those conditions are absent, and any
alterations to the surface, even those made by humans some ~50 years
ago, should persist.
On Earth, footprints or other markings on the surface are only
temporary, and are easily erased by... [+] GREG PROHL (L); BYRON
JORJORIAN (R)

Without winds, rains, snows, glaciers, rockslides, or any other means of
moving and rearranging the particles on the surface of the Moon, any
footprints that we left there should remain for an interminable length
of time. The only rearrangement of lunar sand and grains that we know of
occurs when there are impacts on the Moon which kick up dust, which then
can settle across the lunar surface.

Sunlight striking these particles is inefficient; the lunar atmosphere
is only approximately one atom thick; launch and lander activity isn't
energetic enough to substantially alter the distribution of material on
the Moon. If we ever landed and traveled on the Moon, the evidence
should still be there.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has orbited and mapped the
Moon at the highest resolution ever, returning hundreds of Terabytes of
data, has something to say about that.

Apollo 12 was the first precision landing of humans on the Moon, and we
explored a much greater... [+] amount of the lunar surface than during
the first landing. The dark grey markings on the surface are astronaut
footprints, which have stood the test of time on the Moon, as the
processes that erase them on Earth are absent on the Moon.
Apollo 12 was the first precision landing of humans on the Moon, and we
explored a much greater... [+] NASA / LRO / GSFC / ASU
The orbiter's Narrow Angle Camera has photographed three of the landing
sites: Apollo 12, 14, and 17, to unprecedented precision and accuracy.
By going close to the lunar surface and photographing it with modern
instruments from that low altitude, they were able to achieve
resolutions as low as 35 centimeters (about 14 inches) per pixel.

The Apollo 12 image shows not only the physical landing site (marked
"Intrepid Descent Stage" on the image), but also the Surveyor 3 probe
that had been on the Moon since 1967, visited by the Apollo 12
astronauts two-and-a-half years later! There's the bright, white "L"
shape near the ALSEP equipment label; the "L" is due to highly
reflective power cables that run from the central station to two of its
instruments.

And finally, the dark paths that look like dried-up canals? Those are
astronaut footprints.

The Apollo 14 landing site is still intact, and our images of it in
modern times still carry the... [+] legacy of this nearly-50-years-old
event. The lunar surface changes very slowly over time, and the changes
we made in 1971 are still perceptible, virtually unchanged, today.

The view of Apollo 14 is less spectacular, but perhaps even more famous.
You can still see the descent module and the ALSEP equipment, but
nothing else leaps out at you. Well, except for the footpaths once
again! Whose are they? Edgar Mitchell and the famed Alan Shepard.

Although we never found the golf balls that Alan proclaimed went "miles
and miles" when he hit them with a 6-iron, we can absolutely see the
evidence of the astronauts' presence left behind on the Moon, nearly 50
years later.

A photograph from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the landing site of
Apollo 17. The tracks of the... [+] Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) can be
clearly seen, as can the vehicle itself.

Apollo 17, where Eugene (Gene) Cernan and Harrison (Jack) Schmitt became
the last men to walk on the Moon, paints a notably different picture at
this high resolution. Yes, there's still the descent module on the
surface, the ALSEP equipment and the footpaths. But look closer. There's
also something marked "LRV" as well as a lighter set of two parallel
tracks that run across the surface. Know what they are?

The Lunar Roving Vehicle was included on the last three Apollo missions
and enabled the astronauts... [+] to travel greater distances and
explore more diverse regions of the Moon than they were able to on foot
alone. The tracks of these vehicles are still present today, and can be
seen in data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle! Included on Apollo 15, 16, and 17, its
tracks on the surface are distinctly different from human footprints,
and allowed the astronauts on those missions to achieve distances far
greater than those reached on the earlier missions. The tracks from
Apollo 17's LRV don't even come close to fitting in this image; they
extend for a total distance of over 22 miles, reaching a maximum range
of nearly five miles away from the landing site!

Why, what's this? It's an image taken by Bill Anders of Apollo 8: the
first crewed mission to go to... [+] the Moon and orbit it. This photo
was taken as the capsule orbited the Moon and Earth appeared to rise
over the horizon. The spacecraft window can be seen in the foreground.
Why, what's this? It's an image taken by Bill Anders of Apollo 8: the
first crewed mission to go to... [+] NASA / APOLLO 8

2.) Over 8,000 photos documenting our trips. Perhaps we all need a
reminder of what the sacrifices were that went into our journey to the
Moon. We accomplished the unthinkable by banding together to achieve a
common goal, and could do it all once again. NASA has released all the
photos of the twelve Apollo missions that made it to space on a publicly
available Flickr photostream, sorted into a series of incredible albums
by mission.

Apollo 10, known as the 'dress rehearsal' for the Moon landing, was
actually equipped with all the... [+] apparatuses that would have
allowed them to land on the lunar surface themselves. They came closer
to the Moon than any previous crewed mission, and paved the way for the
actual moon landing which took place with Apollo 11 in July of 1969.

Some of the greatest, most eye-opening photos, stories and quotes came
back from those trips, including some from Apollo 8's Bill Anders, who
took the famous "Earthrise" photos illustrated above. Anders described
the journey to the Moon as follows:

You could see the flames and the outer skin of the spacecraft glowing;
and burning, baseball-size chunks flying off behind us. It was an eerie
feeling, like being a gnat inside a blowtorch flame.

Some of the deployed scientific equipment taken to the Moon during the
Apollo 12 mission, where the... [+] installation and operation of this
equipment was well-documented both remotely and in situ by the
astronauts who installed it.

On Thu, 27 Jan 2022 15:37:26 -0800, a425couple <a425couple@hotmail.com> wrote:
>the Moon

If you keep repeating the mantra "We went to the Moon" for a long
enough time, it makes it become true. Like magic, it's bewitching.

x-Moon's mean geocentric distance 238,856 miles(n.t.s.)-x
| 230,000 |
| 220,000 |
| 210,000 |
| 200,000 |
| 190,000 |
| 180,000 |
| 170,000 |
| 160,000 |
| 150,000 |
| 140,000 |
| 130,000 |
| 120,000 |
| 110,000 |
| 100,000 |
| 90,000 |
| 80,000 |
| 70,000 |
| 60,000 |
| 50,000 |
| 40,000 |
| 30,000 |
x----Geostationary orbit ~22,300 miles altitude---------x
x----Mid-altitude orbit ~12,500 miles altitude----------x
x----Low-altitude orbit below ~1200 miles altitude------x
x----JPL/NASA Space Shuttle orbit ~300 miles altitude---x
x----Intl. Space Station orbit ~220 miles altitude------x
x----Earth's mean sea level -0- miles altitude----------x

Arthur Charles Clarke was born to Charles Wright & Mary Nora
Willis-Clarke on Sunday 16 December 1917 at 13 Blenheim Road
(3W28:36,51N12:23) Minehead TA24 5PZ, Somersetshire, England.
(N. McAleer's biography "on the morning of December 16 1917")

Stanley Kubrick was born to Jacob Leonard & Sadie Gertrude Perveler-
Kubrick at Society for the Lying-In Hospital 305 2nd Ave. (73W59:01,
40N44:05) Manhattan New York, NY, on Thursday July 26, 1928 (AA/BR).