Lunar Math

mca

各位喜歡行星科學 (planetary science) 的朋友，又喜歡玩下月球的 "math"，這篇 44 頁 “Lunar Math” 講稿好有教育性和趣味性，普通人也易明白，讀者甚至用小型望遠鏡來印証講稿所說的物理現象，從中建立你個人的觀天經驗。

http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/SMBooks/LunarMathV2.pdf


======= A note from the Author =======

It is hard to believe that it has been over 36 years since Apollo-17 left the moon, and the last humans walked on its surface. It is difficult to look back at the intervening years and not dwell upon the opportunities that were lost in setting up the first human colonies there. Back then, there was a huge public outcry against the perceived wastefulness of sending humans to the moon, when so many humans remained to be fed here on Earth.  Now, of course, the human population has nearly doubled, (3.8 billion in 1972 to 6.7 billion). Despite the trillions of dollars that have been spent to relieve poverty, it is still with us. The 0.7% of our federal budget that we are allowed to spend on space exploration ($17 billion in 2007) is completely overshadowed by other huge purchases that we seldom complain about (for instance, bottled water $12 billion and pet food $17 billion), and the nearly $1 trillion now deeded to 'bail-out' our economy.  This math guide celebrates the impending return to the moon by NASA with the launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). It is the first mission in NASA's plan to return to the moon, and then to travel to Mars and beyond. LRO will launch sometime in 2009. Its main goals are to search for safe landing sites, locate potential resources for creating fuels and food such as water, and measure the radiation environment.   I hope you will enjoy this sample of problems, and help your students capture some of the excitement of exploring the universe through mathematics!                  

Sten Odenwald         
Astronomer         
Space Math @ NASA  (2008)

==========================

Alan Chu
香港天文學會教育組

ps :
LRO 已在 2009 年6 月 18 日成功發射，第一批科研資料已傳回地球，LRO 網址
http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/

[ 本帖最後由 mca 於 2009-7-17 09:40 編輯 ]