What are the implications of the discovery of water on the Moon?
The discovery of Lunar Water is an opportunity to develop a workable Moon treaty. The discovery of water ice at the lunar poles can spur lunar exploration and development and may be a factor in accelerating human exploration beyond the Earth-Moon system. Theoretical models predict the existence of ice in the cold traps, and the Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions have given evidence that ice is indeed present.
Many cultures have stories and myths about the Moon. Can you find one that you like?
Frogs and Weather
*In China, they see the "TOAD", not the "man" of the moon. The toad is also considered "one of the five poisons of yin." They say that eclipses happen when the "toad in the moon" tries to swallow the moon itself!
*A very famous Chinese myth about this woman who is said to live on the moon: her husband were once immortal beings who were made mortal because of their bad behavior. They then attempted to achieve immortality again through the use of a pill but Chang'e got greedy and took too much of the pill and ended up floating up to the moon where she remained stuck over time. She is the subject of much Chinese poetry and is one of the central reasons for celebration each Autumn during the “Chiense Moon Festival”.
The Apollo 11 mission was the first to put people on the Moon. What can you find out about the other missions that sent people to the Moon?
A moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both manned and unmanned (robotic) missions. The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission on September 13, 1959. The United States's Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
How has information about the Moon been of use here on Earth?
David Percy is an award winning television and film producer, a professional photographer and also a member of the Royal Photographic Society. He is co-author, along with Mary Bennett, of the fascinating book “Dark Moon: Apollo and the Whistle-Blowers' (ISBN 1-898541-10-8). The majority of the film footage on this page is taken from the film 'What Happened on the Moon?”, a film that also features Percy and Bennett and one which I strongly recommend if you have an interest in the Apollo missions (details of how to purchase the video are at the bottom of this article). Percy firmly believes that the Apollo footage was either faked or not the original film that was shot on the Moon. He believes that many anomalous features that would alert the eagle eyed viewer, could have been placed in the films by whistle blowers who were deeply dissatisfied to be a part of the cover-up. He has studied the entire transfer of the original film on video tape, a feat that not many people have done. What many people did not realize at the time was that a lot of the footage was actually pre-recorded and not live at all.
Elena