Word: earthness
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Thus an escape velocity of little more than 5,000 m.p.h. (v. 25,000 m.p.h. from earth) and the use of a relatively small amount of fuel will be sufficient to launch moon rockets toward the earth and more distant planets...
...moon is also a natural, orbiting Cape Kennedy. To blast off, a spacecraft need overcome a pull of gravity only one-sixth as strong as the earth's, and does not have to expend any energy to push through a thick atmosphere...
...moon has equally great advantages for radio telescopes, which in recent years have greatly expanded the observable universe, locating quasars and discovering pulsars and other strange celestial objects. Not all radio frequencies can penetrate earth's atmosphere; on the lunar surface, radio telescopes will be able to pick up the entire spectrum of these frequencies. Furthermore, by building radio telescopes on the back side of the moon, astronomers will be able to escape completely from the radio interference caused by earth's increasingly electronic civilization. Without the background "noise" to contend with, radio astronomers will be able to detect much...
Manufacturers, too, may eventually find the moon economically irresistible. Anywhere they choose to locate on the 15 million square miles of lunar surface, there is a near perfect vacuum?a condition that is obtained on earth only with thick walls and elaborate pumps, and at great expense. As the need grows for "hard" vacuums in industrial processes on earth, the day may come when certain lightweight, easily transportable items that require a vacuum in their production?electronic tubes, computer components, hearing aids ?can be made more economically in lunar factories...
Metallurgical research would also benefit from the moon's vacuum, in which pure metals with maximum densities could be produced. Manufacturers who need elaborately protected "clean rooms" on earth for their production processes would find that the moon itself is a huge clean room, with no atmosphere to circulate dust and other contaminants around assembly areas...