Around the Moon

Table 2 gives the composition of a representative soil sample from each landing site. The composition of the soils from the various locations can also be compared with the results of the chemical analyses of the lunar surface made by the unmanned space probes, Surveyor V, VI, and VII (Table 1), and the data from the x-ray fluorescence experiment (Table 4). The latter experiment made use of the fluorescence x-rays emitted from the lunar surface due to excitation by the solar x-rays which were measured on the Command Service Module of Apollo 15 during its orbit around the Moon. In this way values for the Al/Si and Mg/Si ratios were obtained for large areas of the lunar surface.27 ...

A similar niobium deficit to that on Earth was found on the moon, although the latter s lower mass would preclude the existence of pressures high enough to lead to an absorption of niobium by the FeNi core. It is thus very likely that the moon was formed from material derived from the heavenly body which collided with the Earth and from the proto-Earth s silicate-rich cmst around 4.4 billion years ago. 

The Earth and other planets form a plane around the Sun called the ecliptic and the motion of all of the planets, including the Sun and the Moon, appears on this... 

The much-closer Moon would have had a greater influence on the tidal rise and fall of the oceans. At the moment, the mid-ocean tidal rise and fall far removed from the land masses is of order 1 m but if the Moon had been formed at a distance of around 40 000 km the tidal variation would have been of the order 100-1000 m. Large regions of the Earth s surface would have had a refreshed water supply every 4 h in the extreme cases of the model. Only well inland on the early land masses would there have been a dry environment, perhaps with fresh water replenishment. The early ideas of Darwin called for a Tittle warm pool to act... 

We are all familiar with forces between bodies on a macroscopic scale. If one sits at their desk on earth pondering the view and inadvertently lets go of their lunch sandwich it falls until it lands on your manuscript, your lap or the floor—right Better yet, a cannonball and a softball fall at the same rate. It is the definition of gravity . Long after the Tower of Pisa experiments, we discovered why the moon is in seemingly stable orbit around the earth and the earth around the sun is related to forces between bodies. We are also familiar with electrostatic forces and their effects. Dust from the air in the room is attracted to the screen of everyone s TV because of the electrostatic charge it develops. It would seem reasonable that attraction occurs on a smaller scale and even on a molecular scale that does not involve energies on the order of true chemical bonds. 

That night we camped on the Peruvian side of the river. After dark, around the fire, the conversation anticipated a total eclipse of the moon said to be due. We wondered after the fate of the Apollo... 

Much of world history exhibits a pattern of political cycles, superimposed on the cycles of day and night, full moon to full moon, seasons, droughts and IcKusts. No wonder that cyclical theories of history and visions of the eternal return are so attractive. But things can also get steadily worse or steadily better. The trend may be masked by cycles, but not indefinitely. Destruction of the environment is often nearly impossible to undo. Two thousand years ago the land around the Mediterranean, includ-... 

The fuel cell is nothing new, despite the excitement it is now generating. It has been around since 1839, when Welsh physics professor William Grove created an operating model based on platinum and zinc components. Much later, the U.S. Apollo space program used fuel cells for certain power needs in the Apollo space vehicles that traveled from the Earth to the Moon. 

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