Did man landed on the Moon or was it just a hoax

As I was busy preparing for my assignment, I realised that there was an argument about “Man Landing on the Moon” if ever man landed on the Moon or it was just a hoax.

According to (NASA, 2001) Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon in 1969 and they put the USA flag on the surface of the Moon. And they were not the only astronauts to go to the Moon, a dozen went to the Moon in 1969 and 1972 and only nine of them are still alive and they can prove that. They came back to earth with 841 pounds of the Moon rock and the pictures they captured on the Moon.

The rocks they brought home to earth were unique, it really showed that the rock came from another world, which was the Moon because of the difference between the rocks which are found on the world, they were the isotopes in the rocks of the Moon and we do not normally find those isotopes on the Earth (NASA, 2001).

People believed that NASA faked the Apollo Moon landings in the 1960s and 1970s and Bill Kaysing seems to have all sorts of evidence, including the pictures taken by the astronauts themselves, some testimony by the astronauts themselves and the engineering details. The conclusion was that the whole thing was faked by the NASA in the Nevada desert; they believed that NASA did not go to the Moon because they lacked the technical capability. They did all this fraud because of the pressure due to the Cold War with the Soviet Union (Fox TV, 2001).

I am 97% certain that no spacecraft landed on the Moon. The astronauts would have to travel through the radiation belts and the powerful radiation from the solar flares would have killed the Apollo astronauts in route to the Moon and back and they would have been pierced by thousands of micrometeoroids. Who wants to die?

I am 89% certain that nobody went to the Moon. As I watched the video I realised that those astronauts’ claims to have gone to the Moon, none of them really gave the proof about their tour to the Moon and some of them were cross with the interviewer, they did not want to be interviewed about that. I am 99% certain that they faked the whole thing at the Nevada desert, because if really they went to the Moon how could they come back with pictures, because at the Moon it is hot with a temperature of 250 degrees Celsius, so the film would have melted. And their pictures were without the stars. (Conspiracy Theory, 2001).

The USA flag that they believed was on the Moon surface was shown to be bending and rippling this also proves that the flag was not on the Moon because there is no breeze on the Moon, (Great Moon Hoax, 2001). And (Plait's Bad Astronomy, 2001) supports the fact that there is lack of air on the Moon. As I was watching the video I saw the dust blown away by the rocket, which was not supposed to be blown. And again I saw the footprints, and I believe that in order to see the footprints moisture must be available in soil and the Moon is known to be a totally dry world (Conspiracy Theory, 2001).

In conclusion, no man ever landed on the Moon, they tried to reach there but they failed because they could not travel through the Van Allen Radiation Belts. It was very dangerous to go to the Moon during the time of the astronauts Neil Armstrong and his colleagues and I believe even to day it is still dangerous. That is the reason why people are no longer trying to go to the Moon. And again if it is not dangerous, why people are not spending their holidays there or even to celebrate their wedding ceremonies. Finally, I believe that NASA would be making money by taking people to the Moon like other business companies who are making money; for example, I can spend an hour travelling from Johannesburg to Durban using a flight instead of spending 18 hours using a car. That was a hoax, no one walked at the Moon surface.

Reference:

Science at NASA (2001) The Great Moon Hoax, (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast23feb_2.htm, accessed on: 2006/04/19: 08h00)

Did we land on the Moon? (2001), (http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm, accessed on 2006/04/19: 10h00)

Plait's Bad Astronomy (2001), (http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/apollohoax.html, accessed on 2006/04/19: 14h00)

WHY HOMO SAPIENS SURVIVED AND NEANDERTHALS DIED OUT?

Neanderthal was a subspecies of Homo sapiens, the species to which modern humans belong, it had occupied Europe and parts of western Asia during the middle Paleolithic period, 230 000 to 30 000 years ago. All the Neanderthals are heavily built but those from Western Europe are mostly robust. Homo sapiens appeared 195 000 years ago.

Neanderthals were very focused in whatever they were doing all the time and they lived in small groups, on the other side Homo sapiens lived in collection of several family groups. Even though Neanderthals were known to be the top predators they did not survive because they were 100% carnivorous, they finally lacked food as it was possible for them to hunt nothing for a day or two and this resulted in their extinct.
Neanderthals became extinct by 20 000 years ago. There are possibilities that they were destroyed by modern human or they disappeared through interbreeding or a physical inability to use stone tools or they lacked failed to survive the increasingly harsh winters. Homo sapiens survived because they were the omnivorous, therefore, their food were always available. They also survived the harsh environment.

Indeed there is extinction of Neanderthals, because all the humans lived today are pure Homo sapiens even though anthropologist does concede that the interbreeding between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens may have occurred, but according to the genetic test none of their descendents seem to have survived. The dominant species of Homo sapiens were successful in harsh environment.

REVIEW OF THE ELEGENT UNIVERSE

The Elegant Universe is written by Einstein, edited by Jonathan and funded by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The National Science Foundation and The George D. Fund.

The video is about the beginning of the universe (the Big bang), the planet and everything happening on it. The Elegant Universe is the theory of everything in the universe. They said an apple (Shape) gave picture of the Universe. Isaac Newton discovered the force of gravity when an apple fallen from the tree and hit him on his head.

Albert Einstein gave the world a perfect picture of what the force of gravity was; even today we are still using his formulas. He spent the last 30 years of his life searching for a way to describe the force of nature in a single theory, which lead to the introduction of the string theory. String theory is the theory of everything. It states that ‘we may be living in the universe that reality we are mixing fiction'. Albert Einstein never lost hope in everything that he was doing, he understood the world's game of chance, he was confident in his work, and he was passionate to his work. He discovered two nucleus forces in the 1930s. This nucleus forces (NF) tight/put nucleus and protons tightly together. The NF is how all of nature works with the microscope, Quantum Mechanics. He discovered that it took 8 minutes for the sun to travel 93 000 000 miles in the earth. Nothing can travel faster than the sun.

Mathematics and Physics are related so as the electricity and magnetisms. They said the universe got smaller and harder and densely. However, all these theories showed that there was gravity disturbance with the absence of the sun.

My learning about the trip to the Cradle of Humankind in Sterkfontein

On the 23 March 2006, I and my colloques went to the Cradle of Humankind. It is about 47 000 hectare valley located in Sterkfontein. Sterkfontein is located approximately 40 kilometres west of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is wide cave formed by solution of dolomite rock under the water table. The site covers 47 000 hectares of land and comprises a strip of a dozen dolomite limestone caves containing the fossilised remains of plants, animals and hominids

The public first realised the caves in 1896 when Martinagalia blasted there when searching for lime. Dr. Robert Broom visited Sterkfontein in 1936 after he heard about the baboons fossils dumped. He was the first scientist to find the first adult skull of 2, 6 to 3 millions years old ape – man, Australopithecus africanus.

We were led by Mr. Rufus Mokwena on our tour to the cave. He was clear in everything he explained. He explained to us about the history of Prof. Ron Clarke, Prof. Phillip and Mrs Ples.

On our way to the cave he was explaining the following to us: Black chats were discovered in Mpumalanga, South Africa rock with fossil bacteria 3, 500 millions years ago. The first fish to walk on four legs 300 millions years ago was called Coelacanth. The mammal like reptile from Karoo called Lystrosaurus was known 245 millions years ago and it was a vegetarian. The Thrinaxodon, ancestor of mammals ate all small animals and it was 2m long slender build. The South African dinosaurs called Massospondylus lived 200 millions years ago.

The foot of the Australopithecus from Sterkfontein was 3.3 millions years ago had human like features and it was found to be the direct common ancestor of Homo (H. habilis). Mrs Ples (Australopithecus Africanus) from Sterkfontein was known 2.6 millions years ago. He (Mr Mokwena) said that the starlight which is seen from the Andromeda nebula had taken 2.6 millions years to reach planet earth and it is 2.6 millions years light year away from our planet.

At the cave there is the elephant chamber or African map, named because the dolomite rock looked like an elephant or an African map. We managed to see the ground water and the water is clear. We also saw some of the fossilized rock and he told us that there is a complete skeleton but we are not allowed to see the skeleton.

At the museum we saw the hominids, the teeth, the skull, etc. There was also the techniques of dating used by the researchers are as follows:
They (Cradle of Humankind) used Palaeomagnetism method for dating deposits, Uranium Series dating was used to date infill and stalagmites, and Cosmogenic Isotope dating was used to obtain the date of about 4.1 millions years far the “Littlefoo” skeleton. Comparison method used to estimates the age of the hominids obtained by comparing them. Cutting edge of Science is a species age of different members of Sterkfontein difficult to determine, as methods of dating and knowledge of contextual evidence or constantly being refined and updated. And the Age of Sterkfontein deposits, there are six members of rock; containing fossils dating between 4 millions to 1.5 millions years ago that gives us an extraordinary timeline of fauna and flora development during the time of our hominid ancestor.

Hi everyone Welcome once again

I had prepared the summary of Dr. Bob Scholes presentation at SAEON Graduate Student Workshop. Dr. Bob Scholes is one of the top researcher at CSIR. Hope you find this useful.

INTRODUCTION

SAEON Graduate Student Network Workshop is about the post graduate student sharing ideas about their knowledge of interest and their experience with their research and also what they think should be recommended for further studies. The South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) establishes and maintains environmental observation.

On the 29 March 2006, during the graduate student networking workshop which was held at Centurion, Leriba Lodge organised by the SAEON, we were introduced to the Value and Philosophy of Long Term Earth Observation Science presented by Dr. Bob Scholes from CSIR, he is one of the top scientist at CSIR. His presentation was detailed more on how to conduct a research at any level and also about the important or need of team work as researcher. In this report am going to cover some of the concept I found useful for my studies.

The changing faces of Science

There are three pillars of research/landscape, namely research, assessment and observation, and also social needs must be taken into account.

Research is a process of getting more information about something you would like have knowledge on it, you can conduct a research about youth at work only if you need to know about youth at work, the point of interest, by making a research is just the way of getting the right information from the right people.

Assessment is a method of checking/ evaluating information. According to Dr. B. Scholes assessment is a method of evaluating information by adding your own opinion. We can assess if the data collected is true by evaluating the hypothesis found from different sides.

Observation is a method of collecting data by just observing the surrounding and you conclude on your own without the opinion of other people or you can listen to other people and conclude your understanding. However, observation is not a reliable research method, because what might be observed for now might be true for that moment.

Societal needs, your research must not benefit yourself only but it must also meet the needs of the society. If your research is funded by the public then it must also be used by the public, but if is funded by oneself, you have the authority to do whatever you want to do with it.

Long term changes

Needs long term observation
You can not observe everything everywhere, all the time. So if you are at few sites measure a lot of things and measures few things at a lot of sites. We have to sample the information cube sparsely. And all the time we must organise ourselves hierarchically. We can use models to interpolate the entire information volume.

The concept of sample hierarchies

Interoperability

Metadata explained the information about data. It is the responsibility of us as researchers to explain What is Where, Why is there and Who collect it. In common sense, it explain the Filenames, units, error estimates, and headers in spreadsheets.

Sharing data

The data collected must not just be available, but understandable, if the data is collected on public money, then no one owns that data, every member of the public can use that data. The data used need to be acknowledged by referencing.

Conclusion

In order to become a good researcher we have to acknowledge the data by referencing, acknowledging the section and the coauthurship. We need also to organise directory and where possible share information with your mate, sometimes we do not have to search information that somebody has a background on it, for example if you need information concerning invasive species and one of your colloquies has some information so the best thing to is to ask your colloquies than spending much of your time searching for something you do not even understand.