Hi all, A n00bie here:

After reading all the arguments about not having been to the Moon it hit me that no one has mentioned:

The Laser Ranging Retroreflector experiments that were deployed on Apollo 11, 14, and 15:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/expmoon/Apol...ents_LRRR.html

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclips...olloLaser.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-04ze.html



Thank you and goodnight!

I think it has been mentioned amongst the HB fraternity. Their take on it is that the reflectors where placed there by robot probes. They neglect of course the fact that there is absolutely no evidence that such a program existed at the time.

By the way He'sDeadJim, welcome to the fray.

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"conspiracy theories are the lazy man's version of erudition."--JayUtah

I bet you saw the same show I just recently saw...

Thanks for the info and the welcome NGR.

@ Candy: I doubt it as I do not own a T.V

Okay 8)

So what? :-?

If you don't see a reason, then no reason. :-?

If coincidence causes paranoia then these truly are strange times we live in...

BTW you spelt laser wrong. :wink:

Thanks pumpkin, I'll leave it that way. It adds character. :wink:

In fairness, the Russian Lunakhod II rover did place an LRRR remotely in 1973. But yes, there's absolutely nothing to suggest that the US had done the same thing by 1969 (when retro-ranging experiments commenced). Also, I understand that the (manual!) placement of the reflectors for A11, A14 & A15 is so superior to the Lunakhod II LRRR that the Apollo reflectors are used almost exclusively in experimentation.

Welcome to the board, He'sDeadJim!

Edited to add: from http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/...g?sc=1973-001A

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

Can someone explain to me the benefits of pointing a laser reflector at the Earth, please? After all, corner cube reflectors will reflect a laser no matter what direction they’re facing, as long as the laser can strike the business side of the reflector.

I understand that a reflector not aimed straight at the Earth will have a smaller cross-section, and will thus be a smaller target, but I would have thought being out of alignment by as much as 30 degrees wouldn’t severely affect the cross-section.

Cheers!

I think that is probably all it is, Peter. Even though it starts tightly coherent, by the time the laser pulse reaches the moon, it has a fairly large footprint. Only a tiny percentage of this footprint is reflected back, and by the time it returns to Earth is even further dispersed. Collection counts are measured in 10's of photons, which then have to be sifted out from the background noise.

With such a difficult exercise, you need all the help you can get. Maximising the surface area apparent to the Earth is easy (if you are doing it manually, anyway!). May as well do it!

Reading up on the Luna missions, there were 3 sample return missions. Luna 16 returned on 24/9/70 with 101 grams, Luna 20 returned on 25/2/72 (33 years ago tomorrow!) with 30 grams and Luna 24 returned on 22/8/76 with 170 grams. That's a grand total of 301 grams across 3 missions over 6 years.

Pales a little in comparison to 382 kilograms returned by Apollo & makes a mockery of the HB notion that the moon rocks were recovered by unmanned sample return missions. On this scale, there would have needed to be a thousand of 'em!! :roll:

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

I really like this fact, it's a microchosm of the whole arguement. There's just too much evidence that we (you nice Americans) did go to the moon.

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There we were in the park when suddenly some old lady says I stole her purse..... I chucked the professor at her but she kept coming..... So I had to hit her with this purse I found.
-- Bender