h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello all, please forgive me if i seem naive (and please remember, i have only seen and heared, what i have seen and heared), i just have a couple of questions regarding the Apollo 11 mission:

How come the american flag was flapping around? They say it was due too Solar wind, ok, if that was the case, why is none of the dust on the moon blowing around.

Why can we not see the stars?

Did they ever goto the DARK side of the moon? and is there any information on it?

The americans spent (according to Wikipedia) 25.4 Billion (1969)dollars, on the Apollo programme (which translates into 135 Billion 2005 dollars) the last time sum1 was sent there (too the moon) was in 1972 (i think), why has noone been sent too the moon since?

Ok, we know there is Gravity on the moon, did they establish weather there was a magnetic field there?

If any1 can shed light on ANY of these questions that would be great, in New Zealand, a documentry was shown called "Can u beleive, they put a Man on the Moon" it was very interesting, but this documentry was never shown here in Australia.

Thanxs

Kutkre8oR

Hi there

Well, here's a try at an answer to your questions.

How come the american flag was flapping around?
It wasn’t. At least not due to any wind, solar or otherwise. The only time that any of the Apollo flags can be seen to move is when an astronaut is touching it and usually trying to screw it into the ground. The crew of Apollo 11 did have difficulty getting the flag post into the lunar surface and because it was off centre it swivelled through a few degrees about the time the LM was depressurised after the conclusion of the EVA

Why can we not see the stars?
You can’t see stars (in any of the lunar photographs) because the cameras they used were set in exposure and time to take photographs of a brightly lit lunarscape. If you want to take photographs of stars even on Earth you have to increase the exposure time and aperture which would have effectively over exposed the things they came to photograph.

Did they ever goto the DARK side of the moon? and is there any information on it?
There isn’t actually a ‘dark‘ side of the moon. During the course of a lunar month the whole of the moon is equally lit as it rotates throughout its orbit. When the far side (the side we can’t see from Earth) is lit we have ’new moon’ and we can’t see the side nearest to us.
All of the missions that went to the moon orbited around to the far side many times and many photographs of it were taken. By and large it’s much the same as the side we can see except it doesn’t have as many areas of Mare. That’s the dark patches. One of the largest known impact basins in the solar system was found there. None of the missions landed there as it was thought too difficult/risky maintaining contact.

why has noone been sent too the moon since?
Several reasons. Apollo had achieved its purpose, beating the Soviets to the moon Mos It was thought too expensive and it wasn’t necessary to keep doing it at enormous cost. At the finish of Apollo most (but not all) of the questions about the moon had been answered. There isn’t the political will to return, although George Bush has indicated that America will go back there and to Mars in the future.

did they establish weather there was a magnetic field there?
They established that there is practically no magnetic field on the moon. There may have been in its past when the moon had a molten core. The only magnetism remaining is in the surface rocks which is weak but nothing that could constitute a ‘field’.

Hope this helps
DK