Moon Over Parador

[silvermoon383]

We stopped going because Congress decided they needed NASA's budget for their pork projects.

[painted wolf]

The moon doesn't orbit at the equator... it travels through the equator, but it moves from 28.5 degrees north and south of the equator.
Such a wobble is best explained by the impactor model. Though an impactor smaller than Mars.

This is why tides are so wonky... and why my research with Horseshoe crabs can be a tad frustrating from time to time.

As to why we don't still go to the moon... it's very expensive, very dangerous and with no competition it's not very glamorous. People don't like funding space exploration... they would rather spend the money at home.

wa:do

[Riverwolf]

Originally Posted by painted wolf

As to why we don't still go to the moon... it's very expensive, very dangerous and with no competition it's not very glamorous. People don't like funding space exploration... they would rather spend the money at home.

wa:do

Or on weapons of war... don't forget that the original purpose of the space race was for advantages during the Cold War; now that we've got lots of nuclear satellites in orbit, there's not much call to go that far anymore.

[Troublemane]

Ya, i think the impactor model still best, but maybe the moon has been closer over long periods of time. maybe it was say half the distance 4 billion years ago, and over the last few billion it slowly floated out, now the acceleration away has become faster (since its further away), and its also taking away some of earth's angular momentum with it (like earth may have rotated alot faster a few billion years ago)...the earth/moon system is eventually going to settle down, so they rotate around each other, always facing each other---thats a long ways off though.

I personally believe the moon has alot to do with our geologic activity, too. I mean look at the other terrestrial planets in the solar system---mercury, venus, mars...none of them are as active as earth, and i would bet it has to do with our moon. in fact, its probably why we have continental drift, and such. it may be the reason we have life at all on this planet. Praise Luna!

[kadzbiz]

Didn't it all start when a pack of rambunctious college kids were riding the bus when one of them slid open the window and ............ I don't quite believe it myself.

[rojse]

Originally Posted by cardero

Anybody have any reasons why we stopped the moon missions?

Because America beat Russia to the moon.

[camanintx]

Originally Posted by Troublemane

and (b) the moon is calculated to be moving away from the earth at a rate of 1" per year. at that rate (calculating backwards) it would have been only 13,000,000 years ago that the moon split off from earth.

How do you figure? Even the YEC people at Creation Wiki can't come up with a number less than 1.1 billion years ago.