The Moon is the Earth’s only natural satellite, and is so close to us that you can see craters and
mountains on its surface clearly using binoculars! Most of the features on its surface have
resulted from meteorites crashing, creating lots of different sized craters. The Moon has been
explored several times, and is an important focus for further exploration and possible future
colonisation by humans.
Moon Missions
The Apollo missions to the moon provided scientists with huge amounts of lunar
data to help us understand more about the Moon, in the form of samples,
experiments and photographs. Six of the Apollo missions resulted in lunar landings;
Apollos 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17.
The first lunar landing during the Apollo 11 mission was commanded by Neil
Armstrong, who became the first man to walk on the Moon at 2.56am (GMT) on
21st July 1969.
The Apollo 13 mission was a very famous “successful failure” where an oxygen tank
explosion caused the crew to abandon its mission in order to get back to Earth
safely. The positive attitude of the crew and problem solving of mission control
resulted in the crew successfully returning to Earth unharmed, despite being
enclosed in a small cramped space with barely enough power or water to survive
the four day journey.
D
Did
you
k
know?
The Moon
doesn’t orbit the
Earth in a perfect
circle?
cl The average
distance of the Moon
from Earth is 384,537km,
however, as it moves
around its oval orbit the
actual distance from the
Earth’s centre varies
between 363,104km and
405,969km!
ACTION:
There are many different
arguments related to the
Moon Hoax, perhaps you
can look them up and
make your own mind up!
Did you
know?
That the Moon
spins on its
y
own axis in exactly
the same time it
ne
takes to complete one
orbit of the Earth?
This means that we only
ever see the same face
of the Moon! The far
side of the Moon can
only be seen from Outer
Space.
The Great Moon Hoax
Some people believe that in the race to put the
first man on the Moon, the US Government’s
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) set up a fake Apollo 11 moon landing
in a film studio, and therefore never actually
set foot on the moon!
Critics say that the lack of background stars in
NASA’s photos show that they never went to
the Moon. However, photographers know that it
Armstrong plants the American flag.
would be hard to capture both a bright spacesuit near the camera and dim far
away stars in the same photograph.
The hoax theory also claims that the American flag shouldn’t appear to ‘fly’ on the
Moon, as it has no atmosphere! Since there is no wind on the Moon to fly the flag,
the stars and stripes were better displayed by placing a pole along the top of the
flag to keep it opened up.
All the hoax claims have been disproved, and so the success of the Apollo 11
lunar landing remains a historical fact!
You can also find out how much of the moon you will
be able to see tonight by downloading our moon
phase calendar:
www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/astronomy.aspx