Word: beaming
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...recorded and transmitted to earth evidence of the tremors caused when Aldrin hammered tubes into the lunar surface to collect core samples. It also registered the thud when the astronauts dropped their backpacks from Eagle's hatch. But the first test of the laser reflector failed when a beam shot from California's Lick Observatory missed the reflector by about 50 miles...
...their part in the moon special, the astronauts were scheduled to beam their live production back to earth via a signal sent through space to a receiving station in Parkes, Australia, from which point it was to be relayed on around the world. And the camera that did all this work? Not really very impressive looking: a 7.25-lb. miniaturized instrument that resembles an ordinary home-movie camera but operates on the same principle as its TV-studio big brother. It contains 250 components designed to operate in a vacuum and under extreme temperature conditions. Some of the parts...
...astronauts will also leave behind a laser reflector pointed toward the earth. The reflector actually consists of an array of 100 quartz corner reflectors, so called because they are shaped like the corner of a cube or a room. Each reflector has a valuable characteristic: it will reflect a beam of light directly back to the source. Thus light aimed at the lunar reflector from a laser located in Los Angeles, for instance, will bounce directly back to Los Angeles...
...timing the round trip of the laser beam, scientists will be able to fix the distance between the earth and the moon at any time to within 6 in. of the exact figure. This precise measuring rod should help answer a number of vexing scientific questions. By revealing previously unmeasurable variations in the orbit of the moon, for example, it should provide a better understanding of the nature of gravity. For if scientists can determine precisely how much the moon's orbit is increasing each year, they may finally be able to confirm?or disprove?the theory that the force...
...lunar environment is also ideal for cyclotrons and other devices that accelerate subatomic particles in a vacuum. For the same reason, electron beam-welding?which also requires a high vacuum?would be facilitated on the moon. Another joining process, cold-welding, could become an important part of lunar industry. In a vacuum, two perfectly clean and smooth metal surfaces?uncontaminated by oxides that are formed in the earth's atmosphere ?can be welded solidly together without heat and with little pressure...