Originally posted by ShadowXIX
I just want to know if anyone can answer a simple question about the moon landing for me. The Moon has about 1/6 earths gravity so when the astronuats wanted to leave the moon why did there capsule not look like it was 1/6 the size of rockets that leave earth orbit? I understand that there is no air and thus no air resistance on the moon but does that really explain the small size of rockets needed to escape the moons orbit?That is the only thing i could never figure out about the moon landing and it always bugged me.
You pretty much explained it yourself. The moon doesn't have the atmosphere the earth does. It would make sense that the engines would have to be 1/6th the size of the boosters used by the initial rocket...But the moon is lacking earth's atmosphere (it does have an extrememly thin atmosphere)
I'm also going to U2U cmdrKeenKid this thread; being an astronomy teacher, he may be able to explain this a lot better then myself. I'm interested in the moon, but I'm a lot more interested in other heavenly bodies, so I don't have a ton of knowlege on the gravity/booster topic. Just remember, 1/6th the gravity also means 1/6th the distance one needs to travel to escape the Moon's gravitational pull, which would lead one to believe the rockets would have to be 1/36th the size if the moon had the same atmosphere.
Hope that began to settle worries, I know for a fact that cmdr believes the moon landing took place, and he will be able to put the other aspects into perspective, I'm assuming.


