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Mythbusters Moon Hoax Retroreflectors

When astronomers from around the world want a precise measurement, they bounce lasers off of 1 of 3 retroreflectors left on the moon by Apollos 11, 14 and 15. They're exactly where NASA says they s...  
 

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guesser7 (44 minutes ago) Show Hide
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I dont get the response sorry,
I am not talking about something the size of a suitcase here, I am taking football pitch size. BTW do you think they could just search around with a laser and pin-point something on the moon. That is the equivelent of standing on the moon and being able to see a car in someones driveway or hit it with a laser. NO WAY HOSE
loperspest (1 hour ago) Show Hide
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Irrelevant. What is relevant is that the raw lunar surface reflections are more defuse and have fundamental limits on accuracy.
Reflections off the lunar surface without aid of a reflector required more energy per pulse, 25 joules compared to an average 7.5, and were at least an order of magnitude less accurate.
sciencemag*org/cgi/content/abs tract/166/3901/99
k3pgp*org/lasereme*htm
adsabs*harvard*edu/full/1975Sv A....19..236A
guesser7 (1 day ago) Show Hide
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I know what you are saying, but there is nothing under the sun that man did not copy from nature. TRY ME
SpreadingtheMuse (1 day ago) Show Hide
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I bought that poster from an online posters store "allposters." Its a fairly famous pic easily found and easily bought.
guesser7 (2 days ago) Show Hide
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What if the sheet of molten silicate that spude out from an impact was the size of a city block? or even a city?
LunarTuner (2 days ago) Show Hide
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@guesser7 , so? It would still act (at best) the way a mirror acts. If I shine a laser at a mirror, it will return at an "angle of incidence". That is, if I aim it from 10 degrees off perpendicular, it will return 10 degrees opposite, off perpendicular. That means, if I shoot my laser from Tokyo, the return may completely miss the earth! A retro will always return 180 degrees. A molten spew of silicate the size of the Sahara Desert won't do what a retroreflector will do!
SpreadingtheMuse (1 day ago) Show Hide
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"a sheet" would be a fairly convenient wild flying guess, and somewhat unbelievable that it appeared just in the right spot.
ALL THREE right spots, as the reflectors went up on three different missions in three different locations.
Random silicate reflects in random directions. But the mirrors are aligned to reflect it back 180.
LunarTuner (1 day ago) Show Hide
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@guesser7 , imagine it this way...

you're in a movie theater and up at the screen are two items: a mirror and a retroreflector. You are sitting toward the back in row G, seat 9. If you have a laser and point it at the mirror, it will reflect perhaps to row D, seat 12. If you point the laser at the retroreflector, it will reflect right back at you. Change seats and the same thing will happen--the mirror will reflect to another place and the retro will reflect back to you.
guesser7 (2 days ago) Show Hide
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A pile of silicate would cause the reflections, there are plenty of naturally caused reflectors lying around from impacts. End of.
These people try to create a complex answer for an really quite simple natural occurrence. Zero busted pal
LunarTuner (2 days ago) Show Hide
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@guesser7 , a "pile of silicate" would send laser photon reflections every which way in the universe. Try telling this to an astronomer and they will laugh in your face. I have! Perhaps a pile of silicate precisely arranged in the shape of a retroreflector might work like a retroreflector.

Again, go read about what a retroreflector IS! NO natural phenomenon can return a stream of laser photon 180 degrees from where they started--NO MATTER FROM WHERE YOU START IT! Only a retro can do that!!!

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