Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from ...

APPALLED AT APOLLO 163
solid-state electronic detectors, which are sensitive to light. Like
any other kind of computer hardware, these detectors are also very
sensitive to radiation, and would have been next to useless on the
Moon, even if they had been encased in metal. In that case, the
older technology actually did a better job than would modern
technology.
3. Dust on the Moon’s Surface
The surface of the Moon is dusty. Before any machines landed
on the Moon, no one really knew what the actual surface was like.
Scientific analysis showed that the Moon’s surface was rocky, and
we could even determine the composition of some of the rocks.
However, the actual texture of the surface was unknown. It was
conjectured by some that the intense sunlight, consisting of ultraviolet
light unfiltered by an atmosphere, might break down the
rocks into a dust. Micrometeorite hits might do the same. But no
one knew for sure if the dust even existed, or how deep it might be.
When the first soft landings were made by Soviet and American
probes, it was found that the dust was only a few millimeters
to centimeters thick. That was a great relief. No one wanted the
Apollo astronauts to sink into a sand trap.
The dust on the Moon is peculiar. It is extraordinarily fine, like
well-ground flour. It is also extremely dry, like everything else on
the Moon. Unlike the Earth, the Moon has virtually no water at
all anywhere on the surface.
Misunderstanding the properties of this dust in an airless environment
leads to the breakdown of the next hoax-believer claim,
dealing with the landing of the lunar module (or LM), the oddlooking
contraption used by the Apollo astronauts to land on the
Moon. The LM had four landing legs with disk-shaped feet at
the ends, and between them was a powerful rocket used to slow the
descent speed as the LM approached the surface.
The conspiracy-theorists claim that the rocket had a thrust of
10,000 pounds, and therefore should have left a substantial crater
on the Moon’s surface. Also, that much thrust would blow away
all the dust underneath it. How could the lander’s legs and the