There is a small but persistent percentage of Americans who do not believe we ever went to the Moon...they are convinced it was all a Hollywood fake, a charade. Well color me unconvinced that the photo above is real. If this was a photo using 1960's technology I might possibly believe it. But NASA wants me to believe this is the product of new cameras aboard the lunar orbiting spacecraft they launched last month!
You've seen the spectacular shots from the space telescope. And the picture above is the best quality they can can get orbiting a few miles over the Moon's surface? Baloney. They need to call their fellow government employees over at the NSA or the CIA and learn a thing or two about distant photography.
Someone please let NASA know I'm ready to go back and clean up. And there's a 1970 $20 bill in the wallet that I'm claiming. Fair and square.
From the NASA LRO Mission Website:
ReplyDelete"Though it had been expected that LRO would be able to resolve the remnants of the Apollo mission, these first images came before the spacecraft reached its final mapping orbit. Future LROC images from these sites will have two to three times greater resolution."
Oh my goodness!
ReplyDeleteThis is the funniest thing you've ever written... at least that I've ever read!
And what the hell are you doing junking up the moon?! Candy bar wrapper? Oh come on, man! (What kind was it? A Mars bar? Milky Way?)
And how did you lose your wallet?
While in high school, I recollect one afternoon stopping by to visit a sweet young thing I had eyes on. Speaking with her grandfather, whom was taking his repose in the front porch rocking chair, he said to me, "Astronauts are the reason why we're having such strange weather. Those rockets are messing up the sky."
I thought it was the most ludicrous thing a young man with great scientific interest could have possibly heard!
Now, one of the most ludicrous things that I can think of is a woman astronaut losing overpriced hand tools in space.
You know, if I can think to put a #$&@ing lanyard on a $30 hammer so I don't lose it in the river while building a boat dock, you'd think a woman could think to hold on to her damn purse's contents! And what about the psychopathic female "AstroNUT" whom drove cross-country to see her in-house cuckold?
NASA is in deep doo-doo, to be certain.
On a more serious note... the photographs we see of deep space are computer enhanced. This shot, apparently is not.
There are numerous reasons why the cameras may not be as "powerful" as you think that they should be:
ReplyDeleteMost NASA missions have clear objectives and the equipment is designed to meet those objectives. There is no need for "spy caliber" equipment (such as the CIA and NSA probably use pointed towards Earth) on this mission. Why would you need to be able to see the equivalent of the numbers on a license plate or the face of a person if there is nothing but rocks on 99.999% of the surface of the moon. The equipment is for mapping (the objective of the mission), not resolving images as small as footprints or even lunar landing modules. If NASA wanted the detail that you seem to want, I am sure that they could have designed equipment to meet that expectation. Furthermore, as much as these missions cost, they don't need to design the equipment to do more than it needs to in order to keep cost down.
This is much ado about nothing.
ReplyDelete"Most NASA missions have clear objectives..."
Yeah, I think that's perhaps the MOST significant problem. They have times of NO clear objectives. And THAT is what is their undoing.
NASA can (and should) save their money (OUR taxes). I defy ANYONE to find THREE people who can definitively (or even take a wild-assed-guess) as to exactly WHAT NASA has done for them, or what they have contributed to America. Most folks would say, "Tang, freeze-dried coffee (Sanka), and Pizza bags (Domino's)."
That's part and parcel the GREATEST reason the once-premiere space agency has lost their way... and why, in large part, President Obama hired another to replace the "I don't have a clue" former administrator (Dr. Mike Griffin).
In a subsequently very poor move, UAH hired the has-been and DOUBLED his salary to a whopping $350,000. In fact, the new UAH president Dr. David Williams began discussions about hiring Griffin (whom served from April 2005-January 2009) even as he was firing other tenured professors, researchers, faculty and staff.
Griffin was hired as an "eminent scholar and tenured professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering."
So, if you think tenure can't come automagically... think again!
The most detailed map of the lunar surface was recently completed by Hiroshi Araki of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, lead author of the study, Professor C.K. Shum at Ohio State University and others, and published in the February 13 edition of the peer-review journal, Science.
Comprised of an international team of researchers using laser altimeter (LALT) instrument on board the Japanese Selenological and Engineering Explorer satellite (SELENE), researchers mapped the entire surface of the Moon at an unprecedented 15-kilometer (9-mile) resolution.
In comparison, NASA's Apollo missions and their 1994 Clementine mission only partially mapped the lunar surface, and only in 20-60 km distances... not the entire surface. The new map will be a guide for any future lunar rovers which mission will likely include searches for geological resources.
Collaborating agencies included the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the Geographical Survey Institute of Japan, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the German Aerospace Center, and Ohio State University. Funding was provided by Ohio State and JAXA.
ref:
H. Araki, S. Tazawa, H. Noda, Y. Ishihara, S. Goossens, S. Sasaki, N. Kawano, I. Kamiya, H. Otake, J. Oberst, and C. Shum. Lunar Global Shape and Polar Topography Derived from Kaguya-LALT Laser Altimetry. Science, 2009; 323 (5916): 897 DOI: 10.1126/science.1164146
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1164146)
With a bit more information on this issue, and NASA at large...
ReplyDeleteUnderstand that the Ares rocket program is managed/designed in large part here in Huntsville at Marshall Space Flight Center. The rockets (there are several, notably the I & much larger V) are designed to launch payloads and humans into space, are part of the Constellation program which includes the Orion crew capsule. But, they have not flown.
Previously, former president George W. Bush had expressed his desire to return to the moon, and to go to Mars. It is this conflicted vision - and whether or how to achieve it (i.e., use Space Shuttle external tank technology or Ares rockets?) - along with other issues that have created problems.
As well, the three Space Shuttles - Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour - are scheduled to be retired this year, 2010, after they return from final construction the still-unfinished ISS (International Space Station). There are 10 planned Shuttle missions this year, - two this autumn - to complete ISS construction, and overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope. Afterwards, there will be no manned U.S. space flights until 2015.
So, it's easy to see why there is conflict and no clear vision in NASA.
The Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, also sometimes referred to as the "Augustine Commission" after its chief Norman Augustine, is an independent, NASA-initiated effort which is now conducting "an independent review of ongoing U.S. human space flight plans and programs, as well as alternatives, to ensure the nation is pursuing the best trajectory for the future of human space flight - one that is safe, innovative, affordable, and sustainable." (Description rom the committee website - http://www.nasa.gov/offices/hsf/home/index.html.)
The Committee/Commission is meeting here in Huntsville July 29 at the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Admission is free of charge and open to the public.
Further muddying the waters (carping & griping), the Huntsville Times recently published a lengthy, half-page OpEd Griffin wrote which was almost wholly critical of NASA's congressionally-approved funding, and other issues, most money related.
ReplyDeleteBear in mind also that people understand "what side their bread's buttered on." Which is to say, sometimes those whom receive paychecks are reticent to criticize their organization for fear of retribution which could "black ball" someone in an industry that receives 100% of their funding from tax dollars. That includes contractors such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and others as well as federal employees.
I circulated an e-mail message to those with interest in America's space program - directly or indirectly - after hearing the following news item in mid-December 2008.
I rewrote an article first published in the Orlando Sentinel mid-December 2008 about then-NASA Administrator Mike Griffin's "heated 40-minute exchange with Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator who heads an Obama transition team," and circulated it to interested parties. Direct quotes are from the people, not the article. There were signs then of his impending demise. By the way, though he has a bachelor's, five master's degrees and PhD, it is well known that he has very poor people skills.
Now, Lori Garver is deputy NASA Administrator.
http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/garver_bio.html
There were four witnesses to the incident.
Mr. Griffin told her she's "not qualified" to judge the Constellation rocket program, which is his "delayed and over-budget moon rocket" pet project.
Chris Shank, NASA's chief of strategic communications, essentially called the four witnesses liars, claiming that Mr. Griffin never argued with Ms. Garver.
The six member transition team all have space policy backgrounds, but Ms. Garver said that Mr. Griffin was worried - according to the Sentinel - that the team "lacks the engineering expertise to properly assess some of the information its members have been given."
Associates close to Ms. Garver said she has confirmed indirectly that "unpleasant" exchanges with Mr. Griffin occurred, and in an e-mail message wrote in part, "Don't worry, they have not beaten me down yet."
Participants at an aerospace representatives meeting this week in Washington said Ms. Garver mentioned that "there will be change" to NASA policy and further hinted that President Obama would name a new administrator soon.
Ms. Garver's team is one of many transition teams that have descended upon government agnecies and bureaucracies asking tough questions, and scrutinizing programs, scouring budgets and hunting for problems.
Those who spoke with the Sentinel did so on condition of anonymity.