NASA Launched Laser Beams at the Moon – For the First Time, They Received a Signal Back

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Artist Concept

Artist’s rendering of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Dozens of times over the last decade NASA scientists have launched laser beams at a reflector the size of a paperback novel about 240,000 miles (385,000 kilometers) away from Earth. They announced today, in collaboration with their French colleagues, that they received signal back for the first time, an encouraging result that could enhance laser experiments used to study the physics of the universe.

The reflector NASA scientists aimed for is mounted on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a spacecraft that has been studying the Moon from its orbit since 2009. One reason engineers placed the reflector on LRO was so it could serve as a pristine target to help test the reflecting power of panels left on the Moon’s surface about 50 years ago. These older reflectors are returning a weak signal, which is making it harder to use them for science.

Scientists have been using reflectors on the Moon since the Apollo era to learn more about our nearest neighbor. It’s a fairly straightforward experiment: Aim a beam of light at the reflector and clock the amount of time it takes for the light to come back. Decades of making this one measurement has led to major discoveries.

One of the biggest revelations is that the Earth and Moon are slowly drifting apart at the rate that fingernails grow, or 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) per year. This widening gap is the result of gravitational interactions between the two bodies.

“Now that we’ve been collecting data for 50 years, we can see trends that we wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise,” said Erwan Mazarico, a planetary scientist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland who coordinated the LRO experiment that was described on August 7 in the journal Earth, Planets and Space.

“Laser-ranging science is a long game,” Mazarico said.

But if scientists are to continue using the surface panels far into the future, they need figure out why some of them are returning only a 10th of the expected signal.

Laser Ranging Retro Reflector

A close-up photograph of the laser reflecting panel deployed by Apollo 14 astronauts on the Moon in 1971. Credit: NASA

There are five reflecting panels on the Moon. Two were delivered by Apollo 11 and 14 crews in 1969 and 1971, respectively. They are each made of 100 mirrors that scientists call “corner cubes,” as they are corners of a glass cube; the benefit of these mirrors is that they can reflect light back to any direction it comes from. Another panel with 300 corner cubes was dropped off by Apollo 15 astronauts in 1971. Soviet robotic rovers called Lunokhod 1 and 2, which landed in 1970 and 1973, carry two additional reflectors, with 14 mirrors each. Collectively, these reflectors comprise the last working science experiment from the Apollo era.

Some experts suspect that dust may have settled on these reflectors over time, possibly after getting kicked up by micrometeorite impacts to the Moon’s surface. As a result, the dust could be blocking light from reaching the mirrors and also insulating the mirrors and causing them to overheat and become less efficient. Scientists hoped to use LRO’s reflector to determine if that’s true. They figured that if they found a discrepancy in the light returned from LRO’s reflector versus the surface ones, they could use computer models to test whether dust, or something else, is responsible. Whatever the cause, scientists could then account for it in their data analysis.

Despite their first successful laser-ranging experiments, Mazarico and his team haven’t settled the dust question just yet. The researchers are refining their technique so they can collect more measurements.

The Art of Sending a Photon Beam to the Moon … and Getting it Back

In the meantime, scientists continue to rely on the surface reflectors to learn new things, despite the weaker signal.

By measuring how long it takes laser light to bounce back — about 2.5 seconds on average  — researchers can calculate the distance between Earth laser stations and Moon reflectors down to less than a few millimeters. This is about the thickness of an orange peel.

Besides the Earth-Moon drift, such measurements over a long period of time and across several reflectors have revealed that the Moon has a fluid core. Scientists can tell by monitoring the slightest wobbles as the Moon rotates. But they want to know whether there’s a solid core inside of that fluid, said Vishnu Viswanathan, a NASA Goddard scientist who studies the internal structure of the Moon.

“Knowing about the Moon’s interior has bigger implications that involve the evolution of the Moon and explaining the timing of its magnetic field and how it died out,” Viswanathan said.

Laser Ranging Facility

This photograph shows the laser-ranging facility at the Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory in Greenbelt, Md. The facility helps NASA keep track of orbiting satellites. Both beams shown, coming from two different lasers, are pointed at NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is orbiting the Moon. Here, scientists are using the visible, green wavelength of light. The laser facility at the Université Côte d’Azur in Grasse, France, developed a new technique that uses infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye, to beam laser light to the Moon. Credit: NASA

Magnetic measurements of Moon samples returned by Apollo astronauts revealed something no one had expected given how small the Moon is: our satellite had a magnetic field billions of years ago. Scientists have been trying to figure out what inside the Moon could have generated it.

Laser experiments could help reveal if there’s solid material in the Moon’s core that would’ve helped power the now-extinct magnetic field. But to learn more, scientists first need to know the distance between Earth stations and the Moon reflectors to a higher degree of accuracy than the current few millimeters. “The precision of this one measurement has the potential to refine our understanding of gravity and the evolution of the solar system,” said Xiaoli Sun, a Goddard planetary scientist who helped design LRO’s reflector.

Getting more photons to the Moon and back and better accounting for ones that are lost because of dust, for instance, are a couple of ways to help improve precision. But it’s a herculean task.

Consider the surface panels. Scientists must first pinpoint the precise location of each one, which is constantly changing with the Moon’s orbit. Then, the laser photons must travel twice through Earth’s thick atmosphere, which tends to scatter them.

Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. on the Moon

Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, deploys two components of the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity in 1969. A seismic experiment is in his left hand, and in his right is a laser-reflecting panel. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, mission commander, took this photograph. Credit: NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center

Thus, what begins as a light beam that’s about 10 feet, or a few meters, wide on the ground can spread out to more than 1 mile, or 2 kilometers, by the time it reaches the Moon’s surface, and much wider when it bounces back. That translates to a one-in-25-million chance that a photon launched from Earth will reach the Apollo 11 reflector. For the few photons that manage to reach the Moon, there’s an even lower chance, one in 250 million, that they will make it back, according to some estimates.

If those odds seem daunting, reaching LRO’s reflector is even more challenging. For one, it is a 10th the size of the smaller Apollo 11 and 14 panels, with only 12 corner cube mirrors. It’s also attached to a fast-moving target the size of a compact car that’s 70 times farther away from us than Miami is from Seattle. Weather at the laser station impacts the light signal, too, as does the alignment of the Sun, Moon and Earth.

That’s why despite several attempts over the last decade NASA Goddard scientists had been unable to reach LRO’s reflector until their collaboration with French researchers.

Their success thus far is based on using advanced technology developed by the Géoazur team at the Université Côte d’Azur for a laser station in Grasse, France, that can pulse an infrared wavelength of light at LRO. One benefit of using infrared light is that it penetrates Earth’s atmosphere better than the visible green wavelength of light that scientists have traditionally used.

But even with infrared light, the Grasse telescope received only about 200 photons back out of tens of thousands of pulses cast at LRO during a few dates in 2018 and 2019, Mazarico and his team report in their paper.

It may not seem like much, but even a few photons over time could help answer the surface reflector dust question. A successful laser beam return also shows the promise of using infrared laser for precise monitoring of Earth’s and Moon’s orbits, and of using many small reflectors — perhaps installed on NASA’s commercial lunar landers — to do so. This is why some scientists would like to see new and improved reflectors sent to more regions of the Moon, which NASA is planning to do. Others are calling for getting more facilities around the globe equipped with infrared lasers that can pulse to the Moon from different angles, which can further improve the precision of distance measurements. New approaches to laser ranging such as these can ensure that the legacy of these fundamental studies will continue, scientists say.

Reference: “First two-way laser ranging to a lunar orbiter: infrared observations from the Grasse station to LRO’s retro-reflector array” by Erwan Mazarico, Xiaoli Sun, Jean-Marie Torre, Clément Courde, Julien Chabé, Mourad Aimar, Hervé Mariey, Nicolas Maurice, Michael K. Barker, Dandan Mao, Daniel R. Cremons, Sébastien Bouquillon, Teddy Carlucci, Vishnu Viswanathan, Frank G. Lemoine, Adrien Bourgoin, Pierre Exertier, Gregory A. Neumann, Maria T. Zuber and David E. Smith, 6 August 2020, Earth, Planets and Space.
DOI: 10.1186/s40623-020-01243-w

103 Comments on "NASA Launched Laser Beams at the Moon – For the First Time, They Received a Signal Back"

  1. This story is misleading. NASA had announced the transmission and receipt of the largest amount of data ever reflected of off one of the lunar mirrors back in the early 2000s (around 2007-2009). The story read the data received was without any data loss. Stop relying on Google news exclusively for your scientific research!

  2. This headline is terrible. Launch a laser? They’ve been bouncing lasers off of reflectors since they PUT THEM THERE. Do better

  3. Clickbait

    • James Moynihan | August 13, 2020 at 6:25 am | Reply

      This is not click bait. Had the headline read ” NASA pointed Lazer beams at the moon, you won’t believe what happened”…. THAT would be click bait. I’m tired of people using that term wrong, especially when its self explanatory.

      • Jeffrey Arial | August 13, 2020 at 8:34 am | Reply

        What do you want to call it then? A lie? The title says they got a signal back for the first time when, in fact, they’ve been getting signals back for decades.

        • This is a click bait title because it is an exaggeration and a lie. Click bait does not have to use specific phrases or words to be click bait, it just has to draw attention from a misleading title which this is. The author might not have meant it to be click bait and is just not aware that we have been bouncing lasers off the moon for years.

      • Way I read it is that is is the best they have received because some only send about 10 percent back figuring it is dust kicked up on them

        • People visited moon in 1969, 1971, and deployed reflectors on the surface.
          And in 2020 technological advanced era, scientists still trying to figure out from orbit why the surface reflectors are poorly reflecting. Confused!!!

    • Ummm. No.

      Read the first paragraph, which exactly reinforces the title with more detail.

    • We never went to the moon lol nasa has a vault of elites moneny. Nasa is the Hollywood of the world lol.

  4. ALEXIS VALDES | August 13, 2020 at 5:32 am | Reply

    There was an episode of the sitcom ‘The Big Bang theory’ about that a few years ago. They went to the roof ans sent a laser beam to the moon. The same procedure.

  5. Fell for the clickbait, but ended up reading the entire article because of the interesting information. I couldn’t find an author name, but whoever wrote this did a really good job. It was an easy read, which can be hard to find with science articles.

  6. Thomas Barnes | August 13, 2020 at 6:04 am | Reply

    If you read an understand the Holy Bible then you will ALWAYS see why Lucifer has many names and why he became the serpant, the great dragon, Satan and the devil. The 🌙 and the 🌞 is not outside of what Christ created. The imagery of these Satanist is very deceiving to those who lack biblical understanding. No man has NEVER been on the moon but yet they expect you to believe it. This is why many people are like their father the devil because he was a LIAR and the father of it. When we believe these LIARS then many become like him. We always have to look back to the garden incident and see why we must put on the armor of Christ because the serpant knows the bible better than many and he will stop at nothing to keep you away from THE FATHER in HEAVEN. He uses many people to beguile you and they also have hate in them like Cain had for Abel.

    • Amen my brother is Christ. Not many of us awake.

    • Not Buzz Aldrin | August 13, 2020 at 7:15 am | Reply

      What part of the Bible says that man has never been to the moon and why does it conflict with your religion?

    • “No man has never been to the moon” so… you DO believe man has gone there

      • JesusSaves-Shoots-Scores | August 13, 2020 at 9:09 am | Reply

        Pff. The only proper religion is the one founded by Jesus Christ himself – Catholicism. If you are not Catholic you are only following a lesser religion.

        • Jesus did did not create Catholicism. It was created well after his death. If your not Jewish you are following the lesser religion.

      • Double negative

        • I know people that believe everything in the Bible and not smart enough to know that technically it’s possible to go to the moon. I’ve heard ignorance is bliss but the Bible isn’t the first. if god told you to revient the holy book told you would be told you are insane. I personally wouldn’t let my son go to a catholic church most of the full grown men are fag’s fact. there’s a untold story that the 69 Apollo mission was met by 7 body’s with wings each as tall as a 1 story building. I don’t understand why no-one has been back to the moon but morons look for the American flag it’s visible through a large telescope.

    • Yup. Right on topic. Nice.

    • Where does it say that Lucifer lied unfortunately that was the creators favorite he was upset for what he had done to him he is compelled Lucifer that is to serve what man has been given a choice Lucifer knows no evil that is man spitting created and given by the Creator himself

    • I’ve never seen a flat earther’s comment until now. The Bible has undergone many changes over the years, especially during religious reformations. I’m not sure that is one hundred percent accurate, while I am religious, I also think it’s possible to land on the moon. If physics allows us to fly planes in the air, then why not fly rockets through space?

    • I agree with you for the most part, but I believe you got trapped by your own claim, “is very deceiving to those who lack biblical understanding”. You said, “The 🌙 and the 🌞 is not outside of what Christ created”. The Most High, Our Heavenly Father created the moon and the sun, and you said “armor of Christ”. We must put on the full armor of God. Nowhere in Biblical scripture does anyone speak of a holy trinity, if it does I ask you let me know the exact chapter and verse please. The holy trinity is a lie and concept used by the Adversary, Satan, the serpent, found in all Pagan religions including Catholicism and the Vatican, Greek mythology,ancient Egyptians, Altruism which I believe is Vikint mytholgy, ancient Samaritans, and on and on it goes. None shall come before our Father in Heaven, The Most High, The one with dominion over all things. It is through our LORD Jesus Christ only that we can be with our Father in Heaven. There are many lords/principalities. My intention is not to attack you but help a fellow brother in Christ. God bless.

  7. Nelda R Premo | August 13, 2020 at 6:05 am | Reply

    Well hello just read your article yes those reflectors have been there since Apollo they’ve been reflecting ever since it’s not new they’ve done this for decades at Cal jam 2 in the seventies at the Rock concert they shot a green laser at the Moon during the concert we watched it they have tons of data

    • Does dust settle on the moon?

      • According to NASA dust does…lmbo . Ridiculous. But it will definitely settle in a Hollywood basement.

        • Um. You do know the moon has gravity.

          • Great info and well written except for the crap click bait title.

            Odd how many nutters complain about an article they clearly didn’t read. Sure, keep your weird religious or learning disabilities in the open for all to see, but at least read the dang article so you don’t look so obviously insane.

      • Any object with mass has gravity. So yes, dust settles on the moon just like it does on earth, albeit more slowly

  8. Obviously ‘SciTechDaily’ is a phony site. The headline alone is filled with inaccuracies. Reflectors have been in place since 1969 and the ‘first’ time they reflected the beam was then. Crap site with crap information.

    • Reflectors? Lmbo…I cant help cut laugh at you programmed indoctintated souls. We live under a firmament and they darn well know this. You are fooled by CGI. And why do you have 33 in your username?

      • Not Buzz Aldrin | August 13, 2020 at 7:18 am | Reply

        Did we have CGI in the 60’s? You flat earther’s are amusing.

        • Oh… Try this indoctrinated one. A Hollywood studio was very popular back then….wow. You guys surely try. CGI is very popular now…If you can’t tell it computer graphics there is no helping you folks. Programming runs deep. Repeat the lie enough in movies and TV and even the news and becomes truth.

          • Jeffrey Arial | August 13, 2020 at 8:42 am |

            Jeffrey, you seem to be the indoctrinated one. You believe Hollywood actually exists? What a laugh! They have you fooled! And I see you are spouting nonsense about magical “studios” and devices called “computers” and “TV”. These things are all made up fairy tales. Wake up! Praise the Lord, hallelujah!

    • Please at least read the article before complaining about it. The title is misleading or click bait, but it is clearly explained by the end of the second paragraph.

  9. Not a Clickbait Fan | August 13, 2020 at 6:10 am | Reply

    Disappointed in this headline at the very minimum, still going through the story. The Apollo astronauts left retro reflectors on the lunar surface and there’s literally been bottom basement science tv shows that have gone to laser stations and done reflective tests with NASA.

    • Hopefully by the time you “worked” your way through it you had discovered that, yeah, they mention that. Oh, and there’s a nice shot of Buzz Aldrin carrying one of the reflectors.

      I don’t get the logic of commenting before you finished reading it, but, judging by the comments here that’s definitely “a thing.”

  10. James Moynihan | August 13, 2020 at 6:17 am | Reply

    So what you’re telling me is that the Big bang theory TV show lied to me when they inferred that this had already happened before? Lol. Still, very interesting. But I’m sure. The moon deniers will figure out how to argue this lol

  11. “Laser beams” are not launched. Technically they are emitted by a laser diode, in most cases, or a lasing medium in higher power lasers. You could say they “Fired” A laser beam, which is more commonly used, although still technically incorrect, because to “fire” something requires propellant (as does a “launch”) Jeeez, Remember when News organizations hired editors? Pepperidge Farm Remembers.

    • Leonard Fischer | August 14, 2020 at 3:29 am | Reply

      The word “launched” can-may be used to describe what a laser does. Try doing a search on “laser launch conditions”. It’s used as a “term of art” in the fiber optic industry, but it seems even more appropriate for sending the “laser beam” into space!

  12. And you people buy this trash? God help the blind sheep. There is no outer space. They have lied to all of us. Tin cans went to the moon in the 60s but somehow they lost the technology to go back. Wow. A bunch of programmed indoctintated lost souls following these luciferians

    • Not Buzz Aldrin | August 13, 2020 at 7:22 am | Reply

      Wow. I have never heard one of your ilk admit that we have sent anything to the moon. Maybe you are starting to see the light.

      I never have understood why this is a religious problem. I suppose Columbus faced the same issues. I guess there will always be those who deny reality. Cheers.

      • The moon is a light…lol We cannot and will not ever land on it..lmbo. Tin cans never went through the Firmament. NEIL ARMSTRONG backwards is Gnorts Mr. Alien. Pure mockery to the masses. Common sense. Use it. God it have it to you. You are being fooled. And you dont even care

        • Bible_Reader666 | August 13, 2020 at 7:52 am | Reply

          pls explain to me what gnorts is…

          • Its sound like a TV program or programming of outer space aliens being greeted… give me a break. And you don’t fool me with your 666 buddy. Learn numerolgy, signs and symbols and how these decievers communicate worldwide. And maybe then I will take you seriously with your 666

          • Jeffrey Arial | August 13, 2020 at 8:50 am |

            Jeffrey, here you go talking about fairy tales again. TV? Worldwide communication? Signs and symbols? Numbers? What balderdash! You’ve been fooled by the devil! All of those things are lies told to you by Satan’s demonic servants. Turn back to the light of the Lord! Hallelujah!

        • Jeffery, you are either a very good troll or a very dumb guy.
          I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you can’t possibly be as stupid as you sound.

      • Rogério Penna | August 25, 2020 at 5:45 am | Reply

        Columbus did not face the same issues.

        You see, EVERYONE with a little education knew the Earth was spherical in the middle ages. The Greeks had already even calculated the diameter and circumpherence of the spherical Earth with great precision (Eratosthenes calculated Earth to be 40 thousand km in circumference). This knowledge survived into the Middle Ages (and certainly was widespread in the Renaissance). Although there were some that in earlier middle age times doubted men could live near the equator, etc.

        They were geocentrists (because of ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Ptolomey, not only because of religion), but NOT Flat Earthers.

        So what was the opposition Columbus faced?

        Well, Columbus was part of a small group that WRONGLY calculated Earth to be smaller than what ancient Greeks did.

        Columbus thought Japan would be around the same distance from Portugal as Florida is.

        And thus, Columbus thought crossing the Atlantic was possible.

        His opposition came from the fact nobody (not even Columbus) knew America existed. So they CORRECTLY assumed that the distance from China and Japan, sailing west, across an ocean that would be the combined Atlantic+Pacific in size, was IMPOSSIBLE. The voyage would take much longer than the ships of the time could endure before food and water run out.

        Columbus was extremelly luck he found the New World 1/3 of the way to Asia. Otherwise everyone would have died before reaching halfway to Asia.

        (ps: Maybe the Spanish monarchs got reports and top secret info about the possibility of new lands west of Europe and that’s why they authorized the voyage. Hard to know. If Portugal had found hints of new lands past Madeira and Azores, they would have tried to hide the information, for unlike Spain, they did not have the population or resources to settle it in the 15th century.

    • What do you see when you look up at the night sky? Those pretty, twinkling lights are called stars and you can even see several planets in our solar system with the naked eye, if you know where to look and how to tell the difference between them and stars. With a good pair of binoculars or field glasses, you can actually see the redness of Mars, the rings of Saturn and detail on the moon. Don’t look at the moon when it’s full though, the brightness is intensified through the binoculars and it hurts your eyes to see that much light reflected off the sun straight into your retinas. You know the sun, our star in our solar system, is where the moon gets its light from. With those same binoculars, you can even see beautiful stars and star clusters and constellations, sometimes you can even see the different colors of the stars. But, if you look through a telescope..
      WOW!!! The universe becomes visible to you on a personal level and it is life changing!! Seriously, Jeffery,go to a planetarium and just look up through the telescope. I’m a very religious woman, I’m a Christian and I believe God created the universe and everything in it. I also love science and astronomy and astrophysics and I don’t have any problems bringing science and faith together. I believe that God made this amazing universe to be seen and explored and experienced by His greatest creation, us. He gave us brilliant minds and the ability to invent and question and find solutions and infinite imaginations not so we could simply look at the heavens above from our backyards on Earth, but so we could touch them someday and so much more. Outer space is real, Jeffery. We don’t live under a gargantuan biodome with a painted sky. Look up!!!

  13. Stephane Beland | August 13, 2020 at 7:03 am | Reply

    This is by now way the first time the retro-reflectors on the Moon are successfully used for laser-ranging. This has been happening from the ground for over a decade. Many papers have been plubished over the years.

    • If you read the article then you will—I hope—see that it isn’t claiming otherwise. On the contrary, a major theme in the article is that this has been occurring since soon after the Apollo 11 mission put the first reflectors there.

      The article includes a photo of Buzz Aldrin holding one of the reflectors before it was placed—in 1969!!

      It talks about the laser range finding experiments that have been occurring in the decades since then in some detail. It describes the margin of error in those experiments as amounting to “about the thickness of an orange peel.”

      People keep criticizing the Headline of the article, and yeah, it’s lame, I agree.

      But the number of people commenting here with blatantly incorrect criticisms about an article that they didn’t actually read is, well, sad.

      The other interpretation; that they read it but somehow missed or failed to understand lots of words and pretty pictures that clearly contradict what those commentators are asserting is flat out disturbing.

  14. The article describes first successful detection of reflected laser light from LRO. Not the moon. LRO is in orbit around the moon. That’s an amazing achievement.

  15. I quit reading after it said the moon rotates. Anyone, with half s brain, knows the moon doesn’t rotate.

    • Nope. It does rotate. From Wikipedia:

      • No. It doesn’t. Ever heard of ..’ the dark side of the moon? Wonder why it’s always gonna be dark. Because it doesnt rotate on it’s axis.a couple years back , N.a.s.a was conducting supposedly routine satellite fly bys. Wasn’t routine. 887,000 pictures were taken of the both ‘sides’ but more of the dark side. Only around 1000 of those pics have been released but some of them have turned up on various platforms over last few years and it’s just more of the same kind of thing. Weird images of , something that could be something or nothing but the ones that really jump out at you are the ones right on the division between the light & dark. Research it for yourselves. Just corroborates much of what the remaining living men who have been to the moon have been saying for awhile. We’re being watched and the dark side of the moon is a damn fine place to do it from.

        • You are committing an error in critical thinking called a “False Dilemma Fallacy.”

          You’re argument against the fact that Luna rotates seems to rest on the assumption that if it did rotate, then we would be able to observe all “sides” of it.

          That assumption is wrong in this case, and for a very interesting reason.

          You’ve already been given a big clue as to how this can be true, by the comment that you were replying to.

          Think about the implications of this phrase:

          ”The Moon is in SYNCHRONOUS ROTATION as it orbits Earth; it rotates about its axis in about the SAME TIME it takes to orbit Earth.”

          We only see one side from Earth because Luna’s rotational speed and its orbital speed match each other.

          There are beautiful animations on YouTube that illustrate this, and explain some other interesting implications.

          It is actually very cool when you understand the complex dance that our planet and it’s enormous moon are continuously performing for us.

    • I can’t speak for the half-brained people, but I can, I guess, see how it might challenge them a bit. It’s kind of complicated.

      The moon and the Earth both rotate, and the moon revolves around the Earth.

      (well, that’s only “half” right. To be precise, the Earth and its moon revolve around EACH OTHER, but, *shrug* baby steps.)

      It is a lovely dance, and people have made some beautiful animations that show how it all works.

      I’ll also tell you that there is a stunningly beautiful Mozart piano concerto, performed beautifully by a woman who plays it so perfectly that it is devastating—for me—to watch.

      I’m not going to try to explain either of them to you. Trust me: it’s much, much more beautiful to watch the videos.

      Here are the links though:


      Mozart KV 595

      (The piano comes in soon after 2:45.)

  16. I admit, I clicked on this specifically because I KNEW that NASA and other scientists had been getting signal back for many years and I knew this was clickbait. Still effective I suppose as I clicked. Also, the article content was informative, but I dislike the lie in the title. I feel like a title can be both attention grabbing without being completely falsified.

  17. Yup. Definitely related to the article subject matter. Nice.

  18. Citizen Candy Cane | August 13, 2020 at 11:39 am | Reply

    Damn all you crazy religious fools.

  19. Jesus is real. So was the moon landing. There is tons of footage from astronauts on the ISS floating mics to each other. The comments here are laughable.

  20. Why not equip the international space station with a laser to shoot at the moon? Or is there already one? That way you could check multiple locations. Unless you require a stationary location. But even though on the earth, we are not stationary, not completely.

  21. Dont believe everything you read. Dont STOP for ST😉P SIGNS.
    The moon landing was faked so the USA could say our technology was better and sell weapons during the cold war with Russia. Do your research. humans cannot go through & survive Van Allan belts. Beware the coming Vacine. NanoTechnology. Dont get chipped. Human wisdom is foolish wisdom. Wake up. Read.

    • Seriously?

      The Soviet Union COMPLEMENTED US on our accomplishment.

      What were they trying to sell?

      It is indeed, very important to read, but what you read, and how much you think about it are kind of important too.

      • You are correct. The Soviets were studying the u.s. space program very closely and they did in fact say at the time we did in fact go there. Why would the u.s. biggest rival and enemy lie about something like that?

        • Not only did the Soviet Union publicly acknowledge our accomplishment in winning the “Space Race” with the Moon Landing on July 20th, 1969, but they ceased all their efforts to land on the moon as well after several failed rocket launches and turned their attention to creating the first Space station in orbit. They achieved this goal with the construction and occupation of the Mir Space Station. But I suppose you believe this is not possible, either. Let me ask you a simple question, Jeffery. Have you ever looked through a telescope at the night sky? What do you see up there?

    • Speaking of vaccines, you should get some … any kind, but get some soon.
      Oh, and your implanted chip is short circuiting again.

  22. To bad we didn’t have the technology like we did 50 years ago to go back to the moon 🤔🤔 🤔🤔 🤔🤔

  23. JERRY SUMMERS | August 13, 2020 at 9:13 pm | Reply

    MIT bounced a laser off the moon in 1964 before any reflectors were needed. There aren’t any reflectors cause we never went.

  24. Photoshopped and fake according to flat earthers.

  25. Man’s dominion is limited and found in
    Genesis 1:

  26. I am truly saddened by the comments I have read here this morning. I wonder if this is not a sign of the sad schooling that has been happening for far too long ‘ especially in the U.S.’ where I am a citizen. Most of you are commenting on cell phones that are themselves a product of space technology among so many others we all take advantage of these days. To think that anyone would believe we never went to the moon actually bothers me greatly. Not to mention the sad state of modern English and pronunciation that I have seen here this morning. As far as God goes none of us will no the answer to that till we die but if God put us here and gave us a brain that can think for ourselves then we should all be using our God given talent to better ourselves in every possible way for ALL mankind. This definitely includes reaching for the stars and ALL of the unknown otherwise we will always be stuck here and in time. As I started it has always saddened me to know that people still think we never reached the Moon despite the fact there are spacecraft orbiting the moon that has taken pictures of the moons surface providing proof we were there. Anyone can now log on to sites where you can monitor space from the ISS among others. If we had never reached the Moon none of these things would be possible today. The truly sad part is we stopped going and have wasted 40 years for whatever reasons. If God exists then we were put here for a reason and I have to believe it was NOT to be closed minded and ignorant and to be fixated on any one thing OR belief. Time itself progresses and cannot yet be stopped or slowed and so we have to progress with it or forever be left in the sands of time ‘where one day WE will be dug up by future scientists’ and there comments? What did these people do to THEMSELVES. —Try to get along with one another guys cause We ARE all stuck here together and now days everything we say matters even if you don’t think so.

  27. Kyairra, … umm, what ?
    You must have missed basic spelling & grammar class. Or maybe you were raised in the wild by a pack of orangutangs. I’m guessing you are a public school teacher?

  28. Out of curiosity I’m wondering how it could be that the Sun is said by flat earthers to rotate around a common point above the north pole, yet there is no visible evidence that the sun goes anywhere but always in a straight line. To rotate around the North Pole is to travel in a circle round and round. But looking up you never see the Sun do that. It comes straight up in morning (in Summer) then seems to travel in a straight line until it goes down at night (and it goes straight down, not at any kind of angle!) So in summer if it’s directly overhead at noon, where do you suppose it has to be at midnight. It would be directly beneath your feet. If that’s not true then just try drawing an imaginary line from where the sun went down to where it rises in the morning. At what point does it change from going in a straight line? So by this simple observance (which all flat earth belief is based on) how could it not be directly on the other side of the Earth straight down. Btw the winter Sun also goes in a straight line, it is just more tilted to the South. In winter it rises at a tilt and it sets at the same tilt. Those two degrees of tilt match and connect into a straight line. At the same time in Argentina another flat earther would swear it’s really straight up (but would eventually tilt when their Winter come, when it’s tilted toward the north). From his standpoint the Sun also rises and falls in a straight line. Regardless, the Sun will never be observed following a curved path by anyone at any point on Earth (which would be vital if the Sun really circled the North Pole).

  29. Another simple observation everyone has seen is at sunset. Flat earth says that the Sun travels in a circle, one circle each day, high above the Earth’s surface, which also means it’s high above ALL the clouds of Earth at all times, correct? Ok, so at the moment the sun goes down we stop seeing it’s light directly. But the sun is still visible to the clouds above our head (it’s why the clouds are still as brightly lit as they were before sun set from our point if view). But eventually, as the sun continues going straight down those clouds will also become as just as dark as it was for us on the ground. The question is: How can the light from the Sun possibly strike against the bottom or underside of those clouds if the Sun was really always far above those clouds. If you were floating directly under such a cloud you would actually see the Sun as it dips below the horizon, just as you did on the ground. If you are directly under the cloud then how could you possibly see the Sun if it was really always high above ALL the clouds of Earth at the same time? The explanation has to be that the Earth’s surface is curved so that as the Earth rotates then the Sun drops out of our view. Then we have what God calls “night” which would never really occur if the Sun was really above our heads at all times, going round and round in a circle. And it certainly could never be able shine it’s light under ALL the clouds of Earth at Sunset.

  30. Wasting millions on irrelevant sh#t instead of trying to help this messed up world!

  31. Very interesting I’ve read all the comments some of them I like someone if I don’t but I am very much interested on what’s going on what’s Happening especially when it comes to the Earth thank you

  32. I have nothing to say commenting on the efficacy of the author or lack of exciting advancements. However, they littered on the moon. In that picture they left a ziplock bag. Just disrespectful, what other planets will we soon litter upon? Lol

  33. “Anything is possible when you don’t know what you are talking about.”

  34. Also something to note. There is a classic Theme in our world of the ole black and white argument. It pervades our human connection. Here in this thread it’s: “we have been to the moon.” & “it was faked we have never been.”
    It’s a funny to me. Everyone get your team jerseys out. These argumentative discussionS are potentially intentional turn key ideologies spoon fed to the masses, so they can bicker over and over. degrading one another. A Social media driven narrative. An experimental distraction, in this case, from how much more infrastructure really is on the moon, and what it is used for. That dark side of the moon that we never get to see, what does it really look like? To be clear, I’m not saying I even believe this interjection of outside the box thought. But wouldn’t it be funny to get people angry and separate on two distinct teams, so they never look up from their petty comment battleS?

  35. That’s no moon, it’s a space station!

  36. I thought they did this in the big bang theory.

  37. Tirumal Jallepalli | August 15, 2020 at 10:44 am | Reply

    Cut the snide remarks out. It just shows your childishness.

  38. This comments section is absolute comedy gold. I recommend reading it all the way through if you have the time.

    Also, this article has no author attributed to it, and I’m quite sure that I know the reason why. And if it’s true, as mentioned in the comments that the article was written by “AI”, you would think that any respectable Scientific News organization/website would also have a human review the work before it is published, so there should still be a name attached to it.

    Just so we are all clear though; 50 years ago the US developed the technology which allowed us to place a man on the Moon, unfortunately and despite so many technical advances in Computers, Electronics, Engineering, Rocket Science, Aerospace Technology, Astronomy, and pretty much each and every other field imaginable, we still somehow have not managed to make it back there.

  39. The comments were more interesting than the story.

  40. And yet we still argue about religion and science and cant see the reality of what’s really going are all fooled open your mind not your eyes or ears. Religion? What a joke keep believing if you choose but we are all a part of this molecular structure and all of this is part of its process.

  41. Nasa stopped sending people to the Moon because they’d done the engineering part of their mission and even sent one scientist, so been there, done that. It cost billions, more than one, with a ‘b’, to send each individual astronaut to the moon, and land 2/3 of them and get them back.
    To spend that kind of money, in the USA, Congress has to vote for it, so NASA has labs and vendors in every state to be sure its always local. And that, money, is why nobody has gone back, yet. Each trip, 3 astronauts, cost about 24 billion in today’s dollars.

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