Originally posted by Garry Denke:
Originally posted by Mung:
"However, under current policy, the UK would not be included in any manned mission because it does not support human space exploration."
Wonder why.
Must admit this is the first I have heard of it.
Hopefully since the UK is a member of the European Space agency, things might change. Thats not to say a UK astronaught HAS to land on the Moon.
Any EuroSpace Agency's visit to the moon can only be a combined effort of the European Countrys. Only USA and probably China can go it alone.
Incidentally, if I rem correctly (It was discussed in this Forum 5 or 6 years ago) Our Earth has TWO Moons. Our other one is about 5 miles in diam: and although it has a complicated orbit, it is a true Moon, its called CRUITHNE.
With regard as to where our Moon came from, I am afraid I still prefer to believe that our Moon broke off from our Earth. Inspite of the concensus of opinion being that our Earth was struck by an unknown body in the distant past.
My personal reasons are:-
An object striking the Earth such a hard slam, would most probably produced Moonlets, or small bodies, in orbit. Where are they? Prehaps they are the moon craters and our many Earth craters. But it seems every moon including our Planets have craters. No help there.
With the Earth being given such a hearty wack.....would'nt that either slow down our rotation or even tend to speed it up?
I find it beyond comprehension that the wack the Earth got, did not upset the spin of the earth.
Yet we spin in just the SAME orientation as the rest of the Planets (or most of them anyway).
Plus, as you pointed out Mung, our Moon does have the same composition of rocks as our Earth. (Unlike Mars, its BECAUSE its composition IS so different that when we find small rocks in the Antartic, we can state they are from Mars, because they ARE different)
And why is there NO magnetic field on the Moon?
I prefer to believe that the early Earth had TWO large bulges on the equator, one was Pangea or Gwondanaland, a SINGLE large land mass from whence all the present Continents separated and formed, (still going on today)
While the other even LARGER mass opposite Pangea, was gradually thrown into the position the Moon occupies now, by the centrifugal force, of the faster spinning and hotter Earth, of that time.
That the Moon might have pulled (toffee like) out from -the huge Pacific deep basin, where indeed the crust IS a lot thinner than elsewhere.
Note that, our present continents have been drifting (roughly speaking) to fill up this deep Pacific basin, ever since. i.e America is drifting further westward away from Europe. And Asia drifting eastward.
It accounts for the fact that there is little or no iron on the Moon, and therefore no magnetic field. A land bulge centifuging away from our Earth would eventually break away, to certainly leave our heavier metal core behind. As well as constraining this new moon body to continue to rotate around us, KEEPING the same face to us , as today (being part of us, it kept our rotational speed) ....as well as receeding (faster then, much slower today)
Well thats my story, out of date and not accepted today, since as I stated above, the concensus is we were hit a heavy glancing blow. But ideas like fashion, can change. Someone might produce a computer prog, to back up this theoretical idea?
In addition the moon did once have water. I prefer to believe that some water would be the first to be centrifuged away from the Earth. Only to be attracted back slowly in the form of a thick cloud of water vapour which blocked out the Sun, back onto a much colder Earth (as a result) It might have even accounted for the Biblical account of the huge amount of extra water and flooding. That must have occurred over a long period of time, (as the Moon is not large enough to keep its water), it could well have had a vapour cloud around it, which bled off Earthwise over the millennia.
Oh well, its my pet belief, all supposition, no proof, but there is no proof as to this mysterious body that slammed into our Earth either....and went on its way, to where?
