Monday, November 16, 2015

Bonestell's Cracked Lava Surface is REAL!!

In a previous post we mentioned the movie "Destination Moon" and the selection of landing site for the spacecraft and the paintings of Chesley Knight Bonestell,Jr..
The landing site was far enough north that a view of Earth would be low enough on the horizon for a camera to see it in the same shot as the horizon.  

Bonestell had been concerned that his painting of the Moon might have shown an unrealistic rendering of the lunar surface with too many cracks.

Before we actually went to the Moon with orbiters, landers, and humans, there had been much speculation about what we would actually find.
Rocky mountains, and dust bowls that would swallow us up. or maybe volcanic action and lava beds with lava tubes.
And then you might want to practice for a landing you had never done before.

There is still much to learn.

Ron sent me some information about our cracked lunar surface which you can read below.
- LRK -
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Harpalus is a young lunar impact crater that lies on the Mare Frigoris, at the eastern edge of the Sinus Roris. To the southeast at the edge of the mare is the small crater Foucault, and to the northwest on the opposite edge is the walled plain named South.

The rim of Harpalus is sharp-edged with little sign of wear or erosion. The wall is not perfectly circular, and has a few outward notches and protrusions, especially along the eastern half. It is surrounded by an outer rampart of ejecta, most notably towards the north, and is at the center of a small ray system. Due to its rays, Harpalus is mapped as part of the Copernican System.[1]

The inner surface is terraced, and flows down to the floor. The interior wall is the least wide along the northern face, making the floor slightly offset in that direction. Near the midpoint is a system of low central ridges.

Popular culture references

Harpalus was the rocket landing site in the 1950s science fiction film Destination Moon. It was chosen by artist Chesley Bonestell as it had a relatively high latitude and the Earth could be realistically displayed at a low altitude during camera shots. However, the resulting clay model depicted crazing (net-like cracks) across the crater floor, an addition to which Bonestell objected.
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Here is what Ron sent me.  Enjoy.
- LRK -

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Date:: Mon, 16 Nov 2015 02:19:31 -0500
Subject:: Bonestell's Cracked Lava Surface is REAL!!
At 01:06 AM 11/16/2015, you wrote:
... However, the resulting clay model
depicted crazing < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazing> (net-like cracks)
across the crater floor, an addition to which Bonestell objected.
snip
The net-like cracks in the floor of Harpalus that Bonestell objected to, and many, many frequent critics also later objected to are actually on the Moon.

But John Archer of the Movie said that the "cracked lava" lunar surface looks nothing like the surface of the Moon. And Bonestell, himself, after the 1969 landing said in reference to the cracked surface: "I tried to make it just as dramatic as I could, and, as a result, it looks ridiculous now. The Moon looks nothing like that".

However, as many of us have pointed out, there are millions and millions of square miles of unexplored territory on the Moon, almost all of which have at least been photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Consequently, the "rush to judgment" of many critics having seen only a small part of the lunar surface has, like everything else, failed to be true.

Here is a shot of the lunar surface from LRO, both photo (M110919730L) and its context location are given (see URL). The photo was taken on the inside of Giordano Bruno crater, and Bruno was burned at the stake! Both locality and namesake therefore meeting a fiery end!

It looks like Bonestell should be completely rehabilitated and given a pardon by many critics, who perhaps are more deserving of Bruno's ending than Bruno himself!

Ron

P.S.: The full URL with Bruno context photo is:

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/297
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A bit more that Ron noted.  If you have a pair of those Anaglyph 3D glasses. ( red-cyan (or red-blue) for viewing, you may want to down load the file.
- LRK -

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... Bonestell did great work. I have his "Conquest of Space" litho framed on my wall. I always thought the cleverest thing he did in "Destination Moon" was to make the landing site in Harpalus so that the Earth would appear above the horizon. Had any other Hollywood-type  person chosen a site near the equator, the Earth would never have been visible to that camera they had because it could not tilt to a high enough angle. The Earth always appears at the same spot in the lunar sky, apart from a small wobble around the spot, which most people don't realize. At the equator, it is directly overhead. At the poles, you can't see it since it would be below the horizon (unless you stepped away from the exact pole far enough, then you might see the limb, or a larger part of the Earth). Etc.

One sees shots of Taurus-Littrow Valley where Apollo 17 landed, and some artist always sticks an overblown Earth above the mountains. Never can happen. The Earth is too high in the sky there to be seen in conjunction with the horizon. That's why Gene had to squat on bent knees when he took that picture of Jack Schmitt with the flagpole hanger pointing to the Earth (see fig. 58, p. 217, the last Figure in the Apollo 17 section in my 3D book-- you may not have the most recent edition as I have added a dozen of so more photos to the Apollo 17 section--see download URL immediately below).

http://americasuncommonsense.com/blog/editors/wells-downloads/
Ron


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Thanks for looking up with me, 
- LRK -
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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Sunday, November 15, 2015

Harpalus (crater)

In April of 1950 I was 12 and on TV there was Buck Rogers..
In June of 1950 "Destination Moon" showed.
It was based on Robert A. Heinlein's 1947 book, "Rocket Ship Galileo."
When you look at this time after WWII you see the science fiction books continuing the idea of defending the home land, only now we take it to space.

Look up! There is the Moon just waiting to be of use as an outpost where you could launch a weapon.

If the government won't foot the bill, just find someone with deep pockets and build a rocket in your back yard.
When you get there, take a look back at Earth from Harpalus crater

Space in art helped us look up as well.  Check out the paintings of Chesley Bonestell

Chesley Bonestell and the Landscape of the Moon
The purpose of art is to soothe the soul, but sometimes it can predict future realities with uncanny precision.

The links below have a lot of information in their references as well.

- LRK -

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Inline image 1


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Harpalus is a young lunar impact crater that lies on the Mare Frigoris, at the eastern edge of the Sinus Roris. To the southeast at the edge of the mare is the small crater Foucault, and to the northwest on the opposite edge is the walled plain named South.

The rim of Harpalus is sharp-edged with little sign of wear or erosion. The wall is not perfectly circular, and has a few outward notches and protrusions, especially along the eastern half. It is surrounded by an outer rampart of ejecta, most notably towards the north, and is at the center of a small ray system. Due to its rays, Harpalus is mapped as part of the Copernican System.[1]

The inner surface is terraced, and flows down to the floor. The interior wall is the least wide along the northern face, making the floor slightly offset in that direction. Near the midpoint is a system of low central ridges.

Popular culture references

Harpalus was the rocket landing site in the 1950s science fiction film Destination Moon. It was chosen by artist Chesley Bonestell as it had a relatively high latitude and the Earth could be realistically displayed at a low altitude during camera shots. However, the resulting clay model depicted crazing (net-like cracks) across the crater floor, an addition to which Bonestell objected.
snip

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Destination Moon (film)
Destination Moon (aka Operation Moon) is a 1950 American Technicolor science fiction film independently produced by George Pal, directed by Irving Pichel, and starring John Archer, Warner Anderson, Tom Powers, and Dick Wesson. The film was distributed in the United States and UK by Eagle-Lion Classics.

With Destination Moon, George Pal produced the first major U.S. science fiction film to deal with the dangers inherent in human space travel and the possible difficulties of America's first lunar mission landing on and safely returning from our only satellite.

The film's premise is that U.S. private industry will mobilize, finance, and manufacture the first spacecraft to the Moon, while making the assumption that the U.S. government will then be forced to purchase or lease this new technology to remain the dominant power in space and on the Moon. Industrialists are shown cooperating to support the private venture. In the final scene, as the crew approaches the Earth, the traditional "The End" title card heralds the dawn of the coming Space Age: "This is THE END...of the Beginning".[2]
Inline image 2

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Rocket Ship Galileo

Rocket Ship Galileo is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1947, about three teenagers who participate in a pioneering flight to the Moon. It was the first in the Heinlein juveniles, a long and successful series of science fiction novels published by Scribner's. The novel was originally envisioned as the first of a series of books called "Young Rocket Engineers". It was initially rejected by publishers, because going to the moon was "too far out".[1]

Plot summary

After World War II, three teenage boy rocket experimenters are recruited by one boy's uncle, Dr. Cargraves, a renowned physicist who had worked on the Manhattan Project, to refit a conventionally powered surplus "mail rocket". It is to be converted to run on a thorium nuclear pile which boils zinc as a propellant. They use a cleared area in a military weapons test range in the desert for their work, despite prying and sabotage attempts by unknown agents.

Upon completion of the modifications, they stock the rocket, which they name the Galileo, and take off for the Moon, taking approximately 3 days to arrive. After establishing a semi-permanent structure based on a Quonset hut, they claim the moon on behalf of the United Nations.

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Chesley Knight Bonestell, Jr. (January 1, 1888 – June 11, 1986) was an American painter, designer and illustrator.[2] His paintings were a major influence on science fiction art and illustration, and he helped inspire the American space program. An early pioneering creator of astronomical art, along with the French astronomer-artist Lucien Rudaux, Bonestell was dubbed the "Father of Modern Space Art".

http://www.bonestell.org/
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Thanks for looking up with me, 
- LRK -
=============================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

=============================================

Saturday, November 14, 2015

To the Moon in 2013, no not yet and 2015 is fast closing

Well back in December of 2012 had some posts about expectations for 2013.
Always the questions of What, When, Where, Why, and how.

I think a bit of repetition may be okay so let me list the links to the two I copied to the blog.
To The Moon in 2013

To The Moon in 2013 - stopping off at Mare Crisium

Folks have been looking at the Moon and taking notes and enjoying the looking up,
Much more will need to be done if we actually decide to do this again with humans.

The answers to the questions above will set much activity in motion and success will change our view of humanity.
Earth bound or something more that will inspire our imagination.
- LRK -

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A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings
Harold Hill: A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings (1991)
(glossary entry)

Description

A collection of meticulous drawings and notes of selected small regions of the Moon, by British amateur Harold Hill.
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Mare Crisium
Crisium Basin

(unofficial name; IAU feature name for central 418 km of mare: Mare Crisium )

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KOKH LUNAR LIBRARY
Welcome to the Kokh Lunar Library of information on the economic development and human settlement of the Moon. Peter Kokh, recipient of the NSS Gerard K. O’Neill Memorial Award for Space Settlement Advocacy, has been publisher and editor of the Moon Miner’s Manifesto for 26+ years and a former President of the Moon Society.
...
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When sending humans back to the Moon becomes politically correct and something that catches the attention of the general public, the locations on the Moon need to be looked at for a continued occupation. Both polar regions have been suggested as well as places nearer to the equator.

Polar regions show promise for continued light and communication with Earth.  
Equatorial regions will need to be able to survive two weeks of darkness.
Then their is the question of what kinds of lunar resources will be desirable.

If a long range to continuous use of the Moon is expected will there be a plan that has guaranteed funding until occupation becomes self sufficient?

Starts and stops may provide jobs for some.  
They don't always move us forward to something that will be a continuing benefit to those others that remain Earthbound.

Thanks for looking up with me, 
- LRK -

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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