Bad News for 'Moon Hoax' Buffs

From: Bunn E. Rabbit (BunnERabbit_at_verizon.hutch.net)
Date: 03/07/05 

Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 01:49:51 GMT

Well, it looks like you Humans went to the Moon after all. But we
Animals were the first in space! 

--
Bunn E. Rabbit
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/050304_moon_snoop.html
<lots of links from the page>
 
End of Conspiracy Theories? Spacecraft Snoops Apollo Moon Sites 
By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
posted: 04 March 2005
12:26 pm ET
 
A European spacecraft now orbiting the Moon could turn out to be a
time machine of sorts as it photographs old landing sites of Soviet
robotic probes and the areas where American Apollo crews set down and
explored.
New imagery of old Apollo touchdown spots, from the European Space
Agency’s (ESA) SMART-1 probe, might put to rest conspiratorial
thoughts that U.S. astronauts didn’t go the distance and scuff up the
lunar landscape. NASA carried out six piloted landings on the Moon in
the time period 1969 through 1972.
Fringe theorists have said images of the waving flag -- on a Moon with
no atmosphere -- and other oddities show that NASA never really went
to the Moon. No serious scientist or spaceflight historian doubts the
success of the Apollo program, however.
"We are observing some of the landing sites for calibration and ground
truth purposes," said Bernard Foing, Chief Scientist of the ESA
Science Program. 
Foing told SPACE.com that the SMART-1 orbiter circling the Moon has
already covered the Apollo 11, 16, 17 landing sites, as well as spots
where the former Soviet Union’s Luna 16 and Luna 20 automated vehicles
plopped down. The images have not yet been released.
Detailed search planned
Given SMART-1’s initial high orbit, however, it may prove difficult to
see artifacts, Foing explained. Using its ion engine, the probe has
successfully spiraled down further to an altitude closer to the Moon.
Foing said that each Apollo site, where the engine blast of the
two-person landing craft stirred up the landscape, could be worthwhile
targets for SMART-1 imaging. 
Did We Go? 
Top 10 
Apollo Hoax Theories  
 
 
 
"We shall search for them, with measurements not only in black and
white, but also in three colors giving some information about
minerals, weathering or [rocket engine] plume disturbance," he said. 
SMART-1 operators also plan sequences that keep the probe’s camera
specially trained on some landing sites as it sweeps overhead, Foing
said. Along with these observations and others, the spacecraft will
also be busy gleaning data in preparation for future international
lunar exploration missions, he emphasized.
SMART-1 arrived in lunar orbit last November. Last month, ESA
announced that the lunar mission would be extended by one year,
pushing back the mission end date from August 2005 to August 2006.
The extension permits stereo measurements of select areas of interest.
Doing so, topography maps of specific lunar real estate can be
created. Mapping prospective landing sites for future robotic and
human missions are possible too.
Why not Hubble?
If SMART-1 can get an eyeful, why not use the Hubble space telescope
to take photos of the Apollo landing sites? Hubble did photograph the
Moon, in 1999.
"Anything left on the Moon cannot be resolved in any Hubble image,"
According to the Space Telescope Science Institute, which operates
Hubble for NASA. "It would just appear as a dot."
Meanwhile, the trickiest task that the SMART-1 scientists have set
themselves is to use a spacecraft spectrometer to look for the
infrared signature of water ice, and perhaps frozen carbon dioxide and
carbon monoxide too. Previous missions have provided evidence for
water ice tucked away in permanently shadowed polar craters.
Any water on the lunar surface would be very helpful in the creation
of permanent bases on the Moon, as outlined last year by President
Bush. Other nations have Moon plans, too.
But to have survived, the water must be in the form of ice in places
always hidden from the Sun. Such dark places exist, notably in the
bottoms of small craters in the Moon’s polar regions. 
_____
"Cosmic upheaval is not so moving as a little child pondering the death
of a sparrow in the corner of a barn." -Anouk Aimee, French Actor  
_____
"Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny", Aeschylus (525BC-456BC),
Agamemnon
_____
"I wear no Burka." - Mother Nature
    
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