Couldnt we direct the hubble space telescope at the moon just for a fw minutes to see the left over debris or the famous flag they planted every time they went there or the housing left behind from the landers.
2006-07-25 14:29:43 · 11 answers · asked by Bren0 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
to will your answer is un acceptable the hubble space yelescope can see How far into the universe? and it cant see 300,000 miles come on. it would show something in fact why havent we tired to look not even a recorded attempt.
2006-07-25 14:40:31 · update #1
what about those commercial spy satelites cant they have a look . Will somebody please have a look and put this matter to bed once and for all.
2006-07-25 14:43:35 · update #2
Nope. Resolution is not sufficient. The Hubble has a ~0.1 arcsec point-spread function; the smallest structure it can "resolve" is about .00003 degrees across. The ground sampling distance at the distance of the moon, at a perigee distance of 364,000 km would then be about 180 meters as seen by the HST, FAR too coarse to pick up something like a lander that is probably only 4-5 meters across.
All those purty commercial satellite pictures you see taken from Ikonos on maps.google.com are only looking from about 200 km away from above the Earth. Point that at the moon, 1500 times further away, and it is like taking a 400x400 pixel Ikonos image and averaging it down to one pixel. Instead of seeing individual cars barely, you would see something a mile across barely. (Ikonos is not as sharp as Hubble).
Now a lunar orbiter probably COULD image those things; certainly Mars Reconnaissance orbiter could pick up something that large on Mars.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) will have 0.5 meter resolution and will easily see the landers and even the rovers, and maybe the flags.
LRO will also have a LIDAR imaging system (LOLA) that could have effectively far higher resolution, but I don't know enough about the processing speed and pointing accuracy of the instrument to know how high it will be.
LRO is supposed to fly in October 2008. Their Critical Design Review (CDR; essentially the review that determines all the t's are crossed and i's dotted and if they build to their current design, everything will work right) was supposed to happen sometime in the last couple of months. I did not see evidence of it in my search, but it isn't exactly exciting big news to people outside of the program. It seems to be on or close to on schedule.
2006-07-25 14:57:19 · answer #1 · answered by Mr. Quark 5 · 7⤊ 2⤋
We do not have a telescope powerful enough to see something that small and that far away. The Hubble is not designed for that type of job, and satellites are pointing toward Earth not the moon. Even if we got the satellites turned around, the moon is just too far away to see. The only way we could get images of the things left on the moon would be to send a probe to the moon and have it orbit and photograph the lunar surface.
2006-07-25 15:29:18 · answer #2 · answered by physandchemteach 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We put laser reflectors on the Moon and when scientists shine lasers up at the Moon and get the reflections back, it proves the reflectors are there where we said we put them and that they are working properly!
Remember, during the space race, Russia was our bitter enemy and our competitor. They had radar tracking stations, and they could tell whether our landers actually went down to the surface of the Moon and lifted off again! They would have taken genuine delight in exposing any such hoax before the eyes of the world and shaming America. But they didn't, because they were satisfied with the proof of their own observations, through their own radar sets.
2006-07-25 14:50:39 · answer #3 · answered by cdf-rom 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This has been answered before. Even the Hubble telescope doesn't have the range to see that small an object from the moons distance (230k+ miles).
2006-07-25 14:36:50 · answer #4 · answered by Will 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
the hubble space telescope can not see any of the lunar landers because the hubble space telescope can't resolve anything smaller the eighty meters across at the moon's distance.
2006-07-25 15:49:44 · answer #5 · answered by warm soapy water 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm surprised at some of the answers and the quality of the debate...
The moon is not 93million miles away - this is the approximate distance from the sun to the earth.
The moon is, on average, about 239,000miles away.
2006-07-26 00:59:54 · answer #6 · answered by Nothing to say? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No.....the resolution (seeing/resolving power) of the telescopes isn't great enough to resolve probes or flags on the Moon. Not even Hubble could do that.
2006-07-25 14:38:40 · answer #7 · answered by ozzie35au 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nope. The angular resolution just isn't there. The COULD be spotted from lunar orbit if there was an orbiter with cameras similar to those on the Mars orbiter.
2006-07-25 15:02:32 · answer #8 · answered by Dick Tracy 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
define telescope radar can also they have a magnetic presence
(radar at Hubble distances no it doesn't have one but it would work cause it depends on signal strength/sensitivity and we have ones that could)
2006-07-25 16:54:05 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No!
the moon landing was just a hollywood stunt, filmed in studios
2006-07-25 14:32:54 · answer #10 · answered by bob 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋