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Aaaaaaand that’s our budget gone, but here’s
the moon!
The rest of this video will be in Audiobook
format.
I’m just kidding of course.
I mean, what’s a budget?
Well NASA certainly doesn’t know since the
government doesn’t give them any anymore,
but maybe that’s because they left 809 objects
on the moon—that’s more than the number
of stars in the solar system—and then spent
more of their budget to catalogue every single
one of them into this neat little list and
there’s nothing I love more than a good
document so I took a look.
In all, there are over 400,000 pounds worth
of manmade material on the moon and that’s
the weight measure, not the currency of course,
because the Apollo program alone, which accounts
for only a portion of the moon trash, cost
about $100 billion in today’s dollars.
It’s safe to say that if you include shipping,
this is the most expensive golf ball in the
worl… or rather, in existence.
This golf ball has a twin, in fact, and these
two were brought by Astronaut Alan Shepard.
He snuck a club, which attached to a rock
collector, and the two balls in his sock during
launch and, once he got to the moon, he teed
them up.
His first shot was terrible, of course it
didn’t help that he was wearing an 180 pound
suit, but his second flew over 600 feet which
would of course be more impressive if the
moon didn’t have 1/6th the gravity of earth.
Shepard took the golf club back to earth,
but both balls still lie on the lunar surface.
You see, during the Apollo program astronauts
landed on the moon in the 33,000 pound lunar
module but they left the moon in the 10,300
pound ascent vehicle meaning that for each
mission thousands of pounds of material was
left on the moon.
You have to fight gravity when launching from
the moon so they just had to leave everything
unnecessary behind.
That includes, six Apollo descent stages,
six American flags, three packs of wet wipes,
one bar of soap, six tongs, six throw up bags,
and six gnomons, which I bet you didn’t
know is the part of a sundial that casts the
shadow, but if you did I’m sure you’ll
contact me through every social channel possible
to let me know.
Also on the catalogue are 100 2-dollar bills.
You see, during the Apollo mission most astronauts
were paid around $17,000—roughly $107,000
today.
While that may seem like a lot, these astronauts
were some the most highly educated, highly
trained individuals in existence going on
some of the most dangerous and most expensive
missions ever undertaken.
You would think they should earn a bit more
than a Wendy’s regional manager does, and
they thought so too, so they supplemented
their income.
A normal two dollar bill is worth two dollars,
but a two-dollar bill flown to the moon and
signed by an Apollo astronaut is worth, well,
$2,987.50 according to this auction so on
Apollo 15 astronauts Dave Scott and Jim Irwin—two
of the most American sounding people in existence—brought
these 100 bills to the moon, but then they
left them there, accidentally.
Luckily they brought over 400 stamps to the
moon as well with the intention of selling
them on but unluckily this resulted in a big
scandal that led to them loosing their jobs.
But now, feces, urine, and vomit, because
there are 96 bags of it on the lunar surface
because what else are you going to do—bring
that with you in the tiny tin can on your
2 1/2 day journey back to earth?
Also on the moon are nail clippers, two pairs
of earplugs, and a portrait of astronaut James
Irwin left by… astronaut James Irwin.
Huh.
But don’t worry American tax payer, NASA
left some more useful stuff.
For example, they left four retroflectors,
which are essentially fancy expensive mirrors,
so they could measure how far the moon is
from earth by timing how long it takes for
a laser beam to return to earth.
Through this, we’ve learned that the moon
is moving away from earth by 1.5 inches each
year or, as scientists call it, 3.8 centimeters.
Along with about a dozen other experiments,
the astronauts brought some somber memorials
to those that worked to get them there.
All three Apollo 1 astronauts were killed
during testing and so Apollo 11 brought and
left their mission patch on the lunar surface.
The fallen astronaut memorial was later left
by Apollo 15 to honor the eight astronauts
and six cosmonauts who died while advancing
Man’s quest for the moon.
What we do know is that whenever tourists
first get to the moon, these 400,000 pounds
of trash will turn into some of the coolest
museums in existence, but before space tourism
starts we need inexpensive rockets which you
can learn to make with brilliant.org.
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