psychoceramics: (Fwd) Re: moon landing

[b--@m--.com (Bruce Baugh)]

Well, fellow space fans, he's too much for us. The jig is up.
From: S--@c--.com (Mr. Secret Agent)
Newsgroups: sci.space.science
Subject: Re: moon landing
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 08:14:19 GMT
Organization: CAC (Center Against Censorship)

In article <350F320F.FA4CBF--@i---pc.org> "Jorge R. Frank" <jrfrank@ibm-pc.org> writes:
>DemonIK[Thor] wrote:

>> If we really landed on the moon, then why don't we point the telescopes on earth to the landing site and see the flag and the rover and the extra stuff we supposedly left there?
>We did point a laser at a laser reflector placed on the moon by the Apollo 
crews, and got a return signal... is that proof enough?>--
>JRF


    You fail to tell the whole truth. The truth is: after you shot 600
powerful laser pulse (each 1.5 Joules within 200 poco-second) per minute,
you only get no more than 10 photons back every second. The photo return
rate is extremely low! A very careful calculation shows that you should
get at least 100 times more photons than that, if it is really reflected
from a LRRR mirror. On another hand if you take into consideration that
lunar surface reflect lights, too, though towards all directions, there
might be a few photons scattered back and be detected. Calculation
shows return rate of such scattered photons matches those that are
actually observed, i.e., a few per minute.
    Is there any literature discussion the expected photon return rate
in theoretical calculation? I would like to have a look.
    And I wonder why they spend several hours for each observation
trying to "average" the data to get an accurate result. The light
speed is an exact number and one measurement from one photon should
be enough for the measurement. Worst of all these data can NOT be
averaged because the lunar-earth distance is constantly changing
at a speed of several hundred meters per second! The lunar distance
is fluctuating between 360,000 km to 400,000 each month!
    I would like an explaination of the above.



--
Bruce Baugh, b--@m--.com
Et in Tela Ego: http://brucebaugh.home.mindspring.com
New science fiction by S.M. Stirling, rolegaming, writers' tools

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