Another well researched post so to use a word you are familiar with, "cheers" to you sir. I do have a question though about the importance of a neutral point of 23,900 versus the neutral point referenced in the 1969 TIME Magazine & History of Rocketry and Space Travel articles you referenced (43,495 miles).
Is it not true that the "neutral point" fluctuates based on the fact that the Moon and Earth are not always the same distance from one another? Here is what I mean:
This excerpt is taken from:
www.nasa.gov...
The lunar orbit, like the orbit of Earth, is shaped like a slightly flattened circle. The distance between the center of Earth and the moon's center varies throughout each orbit. At perigee (PEHR uh jee), when the moon is closest to Earth, that distance is 225,740 miles (363,300 kilometers). At apogee (AP uh jee), the farthest position, the distance is 251,970 miles (405,500 kilometers). The moon's orbit is elliptical (oval-shaped).
I am not an expert by any strtch of the imagination, but if the Earth/Moon distance relationship varies by as much as 26,230 miles would it not be true that the "neutral point" between Earth/Moon with relation to gravity would vary by the same amount? If so, wouldn't the neutral point values of 23,900 and 43,495 fall within the "acceptable" range (difference of 19,595 miles between the two).
I am sure there is a way to see how far the Earth/Moon were from eachother during the dates in question but I just want to know if this is true or not.
With this being said, I have spent many hours looking at the moon pics from the ASU site and other places, and to me there is no question that the moon appears to be littered with structures of some sort.





