Moon Shadows Frustrate Astronauts

saskboy writes "Apollo Chronicles by NASA talk about moon shadows and how they are much darker than daytime shadows on Earth. This is because there is almost no light reflected from atmosphere molecules or secondary light sources like "earthshine". "It is very easy to see in the shadows after you adapt for a while," noted Armstrong. But, added Aldrin, "continually moving back and forth from sunlight to shadow should be avoided because it's going to cost you some time in perception ability." Working on the moon even in the daylight might present unique problems not typically encountered on earth, if visual coordination in a shadow riddled area is required for a task. Audio of the NASA article is also available."

Comments

Science Class

[MBCook]

Why don't they ever tell you stuff like this in science class?

This obviously isn't new, and there is no way it was classified.

These are the kind of things that can help make science interesting. Being able to imagine what it is like on the moon, and interesting stories. That thing about they thought it was a 40 degree slope when it was a light trick and only 10. I would remember that. It would also go to show that science is fallible. No one thought of that before they got there. We still discover new things accidently. This kind of stuff can get kids interested in science.

But instead, we teach them Boyle's Law and Newton's Three Laws. Both are important, but it seems like they taught that to me in middle school. And then later in middle school. Then in high school. Then in high school again. Then in college. And that is just in physics classes (it's in Math textbooks to be used as examples too). Now while I understand repeating it between middle school and college, and teaching it again in college based on Calculus to do more demanding/interesting problems, so much of the science classes I've had are just "memorize these things (again)." Interesting stories like this just don't get talked about.