On a rare occasion when I visit Facebook, I’ll run across a post on my feed from someone who, for good humor or not, has shared an image, video, or link related to geoscience. Naturally, that makes me very happy and almost willing to comment on social media (I don’t usually partake in many social media platforms and I try to keep my opinions on various matters personal). However, I have seen a few posts that are misleading or outright false that I will call out. One such is this image does raise an interesting question:
No doubt that this image or variations of this image have been spread around on the Internet, and of course this is all in good humor. But, this is nevertheless poorly worded.
Statement #1: “Those [countries] who use the Metric System”
Firstly, “Metric System” doesn’t need to be capitalized. Yeah, sure it’s nitpicking, but I had to say it. Secondly, the US adopted the British system of measurements and altered them a bit to become what is known as the US Customary Units. Now, let me ask you a few questions: How do you define what a yard (length measurement, not a lawn) is? You’d probably answer “three feet”. If so, how do you define what a foot is? “12 inches!” you say?. Well, what is the definition of one inch? A bit tricky now, ain’t it? If you said one-twelfth of a foot, you’ve got yourself caught in circular logic.
The US government began defining standards of measurements in 1832 and developed a physical set of official weights and other measurements that was distributed to each state. On July 28, 1866, Congress permitted the use of the metric system in the US and each state was to be furnished a physical set of metric standards. In 1893, the US Office of Standard Weights and Measures, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology, began defining the US system of measurements based on the metric system. Further refinements and specifications were done over the following decades, effectively making the US Customary system a form of the metric system. For more info on the history of the US/metric system, National Bureau of Standards Special Publication 447 (1976).
Statement #2: “Those [countries] who have been to the Moon”
Now this is simply bad wording; it’s incredibly vague and misleading. “Those who have set foot on the Moon” or “Those who have walked on the Moon” would be much better. Many countries have arguably “been to the Moon”, but only one has had their own citizens walk on the Moon. The Soviet Union developed the first human-built craft that went to the Moon: the Luna 2 spacecraft. It was a craft that intentionally impacted the moon in September 1959. In 1962, the US launched Ranger 2, the first American craft to impact the moon, although it was admittedly unintentional.
There is, however, a bit of a question in my mind as to what defines “been to the Moon”. Say you are an astronaut visiting Mars, but you only stay in the Martian orbit. Does that count as “been to Mars”? If not, say you had some advanced spacecraft that allows you to fly into the Martian atmosphere, but you don’t land. Does that count as “been to Mars”? The atmosphere of planets don’t really have a defined upper limit; it’s a very blurred line that separates space from the air that we breathe. Although Mars’ atmosphere is much thinner than the Earth’s, NASA defines the outer layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, the exosphere, extending 6,200 miles (10,000 km) up. Geosynchronous (geostationary) orbit is over twice that, at 22,236 miles (35,786 km). The International Space Station is orbiting about 254 miles above us, so you can say the space station is in our atmosphere. Or, to say you’ve “been to Mars”, do you have to land and walk on Mars? I don’t have a clear answer to these questions myself.
I point this out because the Soviet’s Luna 1 spacecraft failed in January 1959, but passed 3,725 miles (5,995 km) to the Moon, which is 1.5 times the Moon’s diameter. Was it close enough to have “been to the Moon”? In March 1959, the US sent Pioneer 4 36,650 miles (58,983 km) to the Moon, which is 17 times the diameter of the Moon. In October 1959, Luna 3 passed about 3,853 miles (6,200 km) to the Moon while also taking the first photos of the far side. In the 1960s, a series of other US and Soviet spacecraft continued to aim for the Moon, some failed for one reason or another, others managed to fulfill their duties. But, Luna 9 managed to unquestionably go to the Moon in January 1966 as the first lunar lander that successfully had a soft landing on the Moon. NASA’s Surveyor 1 shortly followed the feat that June.
In the late 1960’s missions with life began to “go to the Moon”. The Soviets continued their achievements of space firsts with the first mission carrying life (tortoises, fruit fly eggs, and plants) around the Moon in September 1968 with the Zond 5 mission. This quickly was overshadowed in December by Apollo 8, the first manned mission to orbit the Moon. And then of course, was Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing.
As other countries began establishing space agencies, they too joined in on the lunar ventures. Japan launched a lunar satellite in 1993, then the European Space Agency launched another lunar satellite 2003. China launched a lunar orbiter in 2010, followed by a lander and rover in 2013. India had an orbiter and impactor launched in 2008. And most recently, a private company based in Israel, launched a failed lunar lander that impacted the Moon in 2019.
So, which countries “been to the Moon”?