39
votes
Accepted
Why do the boot prints on the moon appear bright in some photographs or film?
If you take a good look at contrast between the boot print and the unaffected/untouched dust on the lunar surface the unaffected/untouched dust is loose, undulating and has a matt (or matte, in some ...
- 13k
19
votes
What kept the Soviets from going to the Moon (before the US)?
Russell Borogove's comment deserves to be an answer - the Soviets did not have the resources to put into it. Designing, building, and testing all the components of a moon landing mission takes an ...
- 10.2k
15
votes
What kept the Soviets from going to the Moon (before the US)?
Conveniently, NASA has a report which explains the Soviet moon-lander program at great length. It is available for free here.
As usual, the only real answer is "the totality of circumstances.&...
- 824
12
votes
What kept the Soviets from going to the Moon (before the US)?
I think I saw a documentary that mentioned that large rockets like Saturn V could have vibration problems that would destroy them, but why couldn't the Soviets solve them?
Only the first of the four ...
- 125k
10
votes
What kept the Soviets from going to the Moon (before the US)?
I will assume that by "going to the Moon" the question is about landing humans on the lunar surface, not just circling the Moon. If so the question seems to make an assumption that all that ...
- 1,844
10
votes
Why do the boot prints on the moon appear bright in some photographs or film?
Reflection
Yes, as Fred points out, the boot prints act like crude mirrors. If you shine a flashlight at a mirror in a random direction, and place yourself at another random direction, the mirror will ...
- 1,333
8
votes
Why do the boot prints on the moon appear bright in some photographs or film?
Answer: Levitating Moon Dust and a walking capacitor.
Previously submitted answers explain the brightness of footprints as specular (mirror-like) reflection, This begs the question of how a bootprint ...
- 17.4k
4
votes
Accepted
How did sulphur come up to the surface of the moon?
Sulfur on the Moon's surface may have come from volcanic activity, and it was found in Apollo rock samples in 2020 a few years before Chandrayaan-3 arrived.
While most of this volcanic activity took ...
- 8,445
4
votes
What kept the Soviets from going to the Moon (before the US)?
Generally, I think that there's this mythos about how the Soviet Space Program was superior to the US one, or, more specifically, "red"washing on this topic that paints them as far more ...
- 17.8k
1
vote
What kept the Soviets from going to the Moon (before the US)?
I think I saw a documentary that mentioned that large rockets like Saturn V could have vibration problems that would destroy them, but why couldn't the Soviets solve them? It's not like they lacked ...
- 7,780
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