I was browsing through the "Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive" web site when I saw this one. After reading so much of the subject on this board, my first thought was, "I wonder what the HB'ers will have to say about this." [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Well, only one way to find out, so here you go!

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990408.html

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"As I lay beneath the Southern Cross, the stars tell more than I could" . . . David Meece

The conspiracy theorists will simply argue that there's no way to prove the camera produced by the Apollo 12 crew is the same camera that was mounted on the Surveyor.

In larger ethical sense, I wonder about the propriety of bringing back artifacts. Assuming that people will again visit the Apollo landing sites, what should they bring back, if anything? For example, although it would be a great thing to see in a museum, I would strongly object to bringing back the Apollo 11 U.S. flag. A lot went into getting it there. The flag itself is unremarkable. It's value lies solely in its current location. Removing it from that location would negate the spirit that put it there.

Maybe they'll build a museum around the site.

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Life is like a box of chocolates. All of your choices are bad for you.

For any sane person, there are several ways to show that the hardware returned by the Apollo 12 crew was actually the Surveyor III hardware.

First, all the major components are marked with part numbers and unique serial numbers. For example, PN XXXXX - SN YYY. The paper trail for each part is horrific (stress analysis, thermal testing, vibration testing and numerous others.) and is usually done by many different people from various organizations. Quality assurance, safety, test directors, hardware designers, techniques. Boy, none of them have come out to say anything

Second, the hardware is covered with moon dust, whose composition can be shown to be non-terrestrial.

Third, the hardware is covered with micro-meteoroid impact craters, "zap pits" which even today cannot reproduced.

Fourth, I'd bet that there are solar particles trapped in the hardware. I could be wrong about this one.

I'm sure there are others.

Of course what really happened is that the Surveyor was transported to the Moon movie sets by aliens.

I would agree with Jay on the ethics of removing Apollo artifacts. I've been against similar actions at the Titanic wreck site. Items are taken out of context, and as a result, people view them in a sterile, glass-encased environment.

Also, wouldn't the flags have deteriorated by now?


Adam

A few years back I read a s-f novel (sorry, can't recall the title or author -- maybe Greg Bear?) that was set in a large human Lunar colony. Earth had been sterilized and recolonized by aliens, but they'd left the lunar colonists alone. Somehow they were surviving.

The relevant scene was a visit to the Apollo 11 landing site, which had been turned into a museum... a canopy had been added to help preserve it, but otherwise it was "outdoors" and you had to suit up to visit it. The big attraction was N.A's first bootprint.

The kicker is this: the whole site was a fake. The real Apollo 11 site had been so badly damaged by early sightseers (not to mention Neil and Buzz themselves) that they'd had to build a reproduction!

Tsk,Tsk...You assume the moon hoax folks are rational thinking folks. I am sure that all the above mentioned things could easily be reproduced at Area 51...[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

You obviously didn't read my post very well, I said "any sane person"

Of course, I did miss that part...my apologies

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jec96 on 2002-06-06 16:28 ]</font>