Word: mooned
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Most of the earth's space-conscious scientists would be much happier if the first lunar probes merely pass around the moon, examining it with instruments or cameras, and bring or radio their information back to earth. This delicate problem in celestial mechanics has been worked on for more than a century in finer and finer detail. Many factors must be considered, including the speed of the probe, the motion of the moon around the earth, and the overlapping gravitational fields of the earth, moon and sun (see diagram...
There is no point in shooting at the moon unless the shooter can tell if he makes a hit. so all sorts of methods have been proposed to signal back to earth that the impact has occurred. An obvious way, advocated by Professor Fred Singer of the University of Maryland, would be to explode a nuclear charge on the lunar surface. It would make a visible flash, and although its crater would probably be too small to be seen with the biggest telescopes, it might toss up a vast amount of fine lunar dust. If the explosion took place...
...Litter Bugs. But the moon would never be the same again. Since it has no atmosphere to limit the motion of small particles, the radioactive residue from the explosion would be carried all over the lunar surface. When earth's scientists finally land on the moon, they would not be able to distinguish between its natural radioactivity, perhaps including material formed by cosmic rays hitting the airless surface, and the nuclear litter scattered by earth's vandals...
Chemical explosions (e.g., magnesium flash powder) would not do as much damage, but they would contaminate the moon in their own way. So would powdered dyes or carbon black splashed on the moon's surface to make a visible mark. Even a probe that lands gently on the moon and tells about its feat by radio (no easy trick) might carry earthside germs whose desiccated corpses would confuse later-coming biologists. Many scientists have urged that any vehicle intended to hit the moon should be sterilized inside and out before it leaves the earth...
...Ahead. The rocket for the first probe will be aimed about 40° ahead of the moon, like a hunter leading a duck. Its initial speed of 23,827 m.p.h. will bring it to the moon's vicinity in a little more than three days. If aimed correctly, it will cross the moon's orbit slightly ahead of the moon, moving comparatively slowly. In this region the moon's gravitational field is dominant. It will pull the probe around the moon and sling it back toward earth in a lopsided figure eight...