On Martian Forests and Lunar Rovers

[Musicology]

It's contagious ! NASA and now the European Space Agency have loads of young fans who believe there are forests on Mars and the remains of entire cities. With images. And adults are paid to teach this stuff. So are 'scientific' websites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uVI9-yZSwY

Now, according to convention, the distance between Earth and Mars is 34.6 million miles. While the distance between Earth and the Moon is (on average) only 238,857 miles. (Or, if you prefer, 384,403 kms). That means the Moon is far nearer the Earth than Mars. Right ? Over 120 times nearer, in fact.

I have a great idea. Let's fund the Hubble Telescope to turn its great camera to focus on the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon (aka the area known as Mare Tranquillitatis) since that area supposedly contains material from the landing sites of such heroic space expeditions as Apollo 11, Apollo 17, Apollo 16, and Surveyor 5. And there are some lunar rovers there etc. (We photograph that stuff with the Hubble Telescope and it will end all doubt about whether man has walked on the moon).

Far easier than dodgy photoshops of 'Martian forests' and 'Martian cities'. And so easy to do we can fund more space missions when the Apollo images are published. After all, it was over 40 years ago since those heroic flights and Hubble can definitely do the job.

(Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to take extremely sharp images with almost no background light. Hubble's Ultra Deep Field image, for instance, is the most detailed visible-light image ever made of the universe's most distant objects).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope

Great !! Over to you at NASA and the European Space Agency, again.

'Earth calling NASA and the European Space Agency ! Earth calling NASA and the European Space Agency !'

(silence)..........

cut to corporate cornflakes ad -

'Our cornflakes are better than their cornflakes' etc.

:nopity:

[Emil Miller]

I have a great idea. Let's fund the Hubble Telescope to turn its great camera to focus on the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon (aka the area known as Mare Tranquillitatis) since that area supposedly contains material from the landing sites of such heroic space expeditions as Apollo 11, Apollo 17, Apollo 16, and Surveyor 5. And there are some lunar rovers there etc. (We photograph that stuff with the Hubble Telescope and it will end all doubt about whether man has walked on the moon). :


I really don't see any room for doubting the Moon landings; after all, if Elvis Presley and a B29 bomber have been sighted there, that's good enough for me.

[Musicology]

Yes Emil,

I never thought of that. I stand corrected.

Or, as the missionary wife gasped 'My husband has been eaten by an alligator'.

To which the man replied -

'Madam, it was not an alligator. It was a crocodile'.

:nopity:



I really don't see any room for doubting the Moon landings; after all, if Elvis Presley and a B29 bomber have been sighted there, that's good enough for me.

[Scheherazade]

~

Closed.

(Usual reasons)

~