BBC Archive

[MrCarPark]

The BBC have released some old programmes on iPlayer on the theme of 'The Space Race'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/group/p02865b6

The 1960 Sky At Night speculation on the moon is fascinating, giving a real flavour of those early days.

The 1987 Tomorrow's World programme on Mars sure kept the model makers busy too. The contrast with TW in 1995 is interesting in itself.

[Eric Mc]

Fantastic link. Thanks.

Watching the Sky at Night programme on the moon. 1960 was before Kennedy committed to landing men on the moon - although the Apollo project was already underway.

[MrCarPark]

Before Gagarin too, although Patrick Moore does briefly hint that the Soviets might be working on something.

[Eric Mc]

What I thought was interesting was the chap who explained that the lunar craters were formed by meteorite impact. Back in 1960, there was still a very lively debate as to their origin. In Britain, the volcanic origin theory was still very popular and one actively supported by Patrick Moore. The meteoritic theory was gaining more and more support - especially from the US - and especially from those who had studied geology rather than astronomy.

What was particularly pertinent about this episode is that Patrick Moore did not use the opportunity to debate the rival theories with his guest - which I thought was very restrained of him and probably a sign of the gentleman he was.

[MrCarPark]

Just dug out my Mitchell Beazley Concise Atlas of the Universe written by Patrick Moore in 1974, which as I recalled, has a section on the competing theories.

Moore wrote: "Lunar craters are not distributed at random ... occur along lines of weakness in the Moon's crust, which shows they must be of internal origin. ... Central peaks are only to be expected on a volcanic theory ... a close analogy between lunar craters and terrestrial calderas. ... The rocks brought back from Apollo missions are volcanic. ... The volcanic and impact theories are not, however, mutually exclusive."

The Atlas was one of my favourite books as a kid, full of fuzzy photos of the planets, the best we had before Viking, Voyager, etc.

[Eric Mc]

I attended a talk he gave at Trinity College Dublin back in 1983 and asked him specifically about his views on the origin of lunar craters. He was still supporting volcanic origin at that time. However, he eventually saw the light and in the last edition of his well known "Moon" book he acknowledged that the vast bulk of craters had to be meteoritic.