Lunar Impact and American Education

[RogerInHawaii]

Oh, how terribly sad. NASA has a spacecraft that is scheduled to impact the moon tonight. CNN is discussing this ad has a blog on it at

Give it a read and you'll be quite disappointed with the low intelligence of the bloggers.

http://campbellbrown.blogs.cnn.com/2009 ... mment-9876

Just a few of the comments:

What if bombing the moon creates a tsunami on earth, as we know we have high tides in the ocean because of the moon.

are they stupid? why would any one bomb the moon. doesn’t the rest of the world have a say so in this? yea lets bomb something that clearly would mess the solar system up.. bright idea NASA. well the moon is made of dust so bombing it would be stupid think about it…. the dust could block the sun or maybe screw our orbit up.. why mess with something god created for a reason. NASA has lost ALL of my respect!!

who gave NASA permission to “bomb” or impact the moon? What will be the impact on our atmosphere and environment?

 

[yevaud]

I did read the comments, and my good God, many of those people are truly witless. The following comment really stood out for me. It explains itself, I think:

"NASA Bombing the MOON! Why is this ok to do? The U.S really are going too far. There is certainly no way of knowing what is going to be the results. Have they done enough research to tell us what the turn out will be? NO! I can tell you that, and if you wanna tell yourself, “They are a bunch of rocket sciences and know what they are doing”, or “Yes they have been researching this for years they know what they are doing” Give me a break. The moon is still a mystery and in an uncontrolled atmosphere. What if and, And Im just simply saying what if they are wrong in calculations and what people who never went to the moon has come up with. Can they certify the debris will not comback to harm our planet. Better yet what if they destroy it! We dont own the moon. The other countries have right to it too! Im just saying Not Enough Information. They should research it another 100 years."

Freaking Eek! They're allowed out without a keeper?

 

[nimbus]

Was anyone still curious why NASA is underfunded?

 

[kelvinzero]

btw, how often would the moon be hit by natural objects about this size.. what was it, two tons? (or I guess more to the point, of about this kinetic energy)

 

[Kanawha]

It really is no wonder that NASA is so underfunded, given the lack of simple scientific and historical knowledge we see in so many adults. Does anyone take the time to research something, even slightly, before commenting on it? Do they not realize that we have previously had numerous rocket boosters of larger size impact the moon, and at higher velocities? The only difference is that this is being done as a primary part of a mission. It must be a slow news week in America, so everyone has their two cents to give to a matter they typically wouldn't give a second look. If American Idol or Dancing With the Stars was having a season finale tomorrow, no one would care about the moon at all. That's why there is little hope for our scientific future.

 

[EarthlingX]

Same thing everywhere i read comments. People just don't have a clue and all this paranoid writing and talking in main news channels doesn't help much.
Let's hope that final result will be, everyone knowing at least a bit more, with help from those who think they should.
A lot of attention is on this event and those who know something, might just as well use it to spread some information.
I smell gladiator shows for news hungry public ...

 

[MeteorWayne]

It doesn't help that the MSM called it "bombing" when it was really just a small impact, comparable to what occurs seceral times a month on the lunar surface. The only thing that was different is that is was aimed at a particular spot (to hopefully find water) and a particular time, so it could be observed with all available assets.

 

[yevaud]

in an uncontrolled atmosphere

Yeah, I really hate it when that happens.

/roll eyes

 

[kelvinzero]

It doesn't help that the MSM called it "bombing" when it was really just a small impact, comparable to what occurs seceral times a month on the lunar surface. The only thing that was different is that is was aimed at a particular spot (to hopefully find water) and a particular time, so it could be observed with all available assets.

I figured it would be something along those lines. The way the world is, they probably should include that sort of information to avoid this sort of response. Very similar to the 'mini black hole furor'. Scientists are not just betting on a theory, we are getting hit by particles of that power all the time, etc etc.

Of course the media would trim out any factoids that could reduce the sensationalism anyway. :roll:

 

[kg]

Wow, I just love this one!

"they should put ducks on the moon, this way no one would want to bomb the moon, ducks are so cute and no one would want to blow up an asteroid with a bunch of ducks on it!"

Just think of how worse a fate than being bombed his ducks would meet if they tried to waddle around on the moon.

It's kinda sad...

 

[MeteorWayne]

Wow, I just love this one!

"they should put ducks on the moon, this way no one would want to bomb the moon, ducks are so cute and no one would want to blow up an asteroid with a bunch of ducks on it!"

Just think of how worse a fate than being bombed his ducks would meet if they tried to waddle around on the moon.

It's kinda sad...

Of course putting ducks on the moon, they'd be dead ducks

PETA would have a canary

 

[aphh]

Freaking Eek! They're allowed out without a keeper?

Not necessarily, but they are allowed to vote. That being said, I myself do not endorse "bombing the Moon", but for a different reason than being afraid of the Moon blowing up.

We (humans) don't own it, so we should try to take care of the pristine Moon that humans never had anything to do with. The whole place should be a conservation area with only limited scientific and limited commercial use.

 

[MeteorWayne]

To me, the even scarier part was how ignorant the media was about this event, from CNN, USA Today, to the profoundly ignorant rant by Cavuto on Fox, to the equally ignorant screed by Olberman on MSNBC.

Now that the science department at CNN has been dismantled, and far too many "Americans" get their news from scientifically ignorant TV talking heads, basically people who don't take the time to understand the science, and probably are too ignorant to understand it even if they did... Unfortunately most people in the general voting and breeding public also fit in the same category. They believe that the crap they are being fed is correct, because their science education either never existed, or is screened out by "beliefs" that have no basis in real science..

The IQ of the US, when it comes to science, will soon be measured in single digits or decimals

{rant mode off}

Wayne

 

[aphh]

The Moon is a time-machine.

It allows us to take a look back in time when the solar system was barely formed. If we alter or modify the Moon, we will loose the one true time-machine that resides so near to us.

 

[aphh]

Of course putting ducks on the moon, they'd be dead ducks

PETA would have a canary

Ducks really are cute, even if the amount of duck manure may become a problem at times. Perhaps we could turn that sh... I mean "soil" into renewable energy?

 

[arkady]

The IQ of the US, when it comes to science, will soon be measured in single digits or decimals

I'm afraid that's not just an American phenomenon.

 

[EarthlingX]

The IQ of the US, when it comes to science, will soon be measured in single digits or decimals

I'm afraid that's not just an American phenomenon.

Was just about to say that

It is not IQ problem, it is interest problem. People don't have much interest in space so they don't learn about it, but they still talk, when topic comes, and vote when the time comes, looking upon their equally non-space interested leaders to show them direction.
Space, folks, is not only a lab, or a stage for a show, it's a biggest ocean of our future expansion, and this idea is slowly dripping through the cracks of our leaders ignorance and fear of ourselves.
You all can do something about it too, so do it, if you care.

 

[MeteorWayne]

In fact, I get to do a bit of that today. I am the team leader for this afternoon's public session at the New Jersey Astronomical Asssociation's Paul Robinson Observatory and Edwin E Aldrin Education Center


http://www.njaa.org/

 

[SpaceDreamer]

You all can do something about it too, so do it, if you care.

I would like to agree with you here. If this is important, and you're in the US, vote. Tell your congressional representatives. For that matter, if the local public is uneducated on it, help educate them. Most of us had Mr. Wizard or Bill Nye growing up to spark our interest, but as far as I can tell, there's no such figure now. Maybe we all, as a space friendly community, could do a bit better at helping to make it cool and exciting.

 

[Ajboc]

I think you're on to something. There has been an imagination failure lately and people care more about the stars of Hollywood than the stars above. A love for science should be celebrated by society, not condemned. I don't know about changing society, but we can certainly infect those around us with a taste for the mysteries of the universe. I think the big problem is people just don't know what science has done for us and have never been inside a research lab.

 

[kg]

...There has been an imagination failure lately and people care more about the stars of Hollywood than the stars above. A love for science should be celebrated by society, not condemned....

Hollywood does have allot to do with the problem. When science fiction falls into the formula: unknown=evil and deadly threat to humanity, it really tends to scare people away from any meaningful exploration. Fiction can and should inspire people instead of scaring the crap out of them!