From: geracen@iinet.net.au   
      
   "gwlucca"  wrote in message   
   news:1139079224.943325.67860@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...   
      
   > I've armed my son with explanations of the bad science, bad astronomy,   
   > bad photography, and bad thinking for almost all of the arguments. The   
   > last holdout argument for these two Italian high school teachers seems   
   > to be, "But how could a little capsule lift off from the Moon when it   
   > took such a monster spacecraft to get them off the Earth?"   
   >   
   > I've armed my son with data on relative escape velocities (Moon roughly   
   > 20% of Earth), weights (of Saturn V booster at launch vs. the returning   
   > part of the LEM) but I'm looking for an argument that even a   
   > math-and-science idiot might understand.   
   >   
   > Can anyone help me?   
      
   I think you're out of luck there :-) you do need some maths and physics.   
   People who are ignorant (which is not the same thing as stupid) can be   
   taught that stuff.   
      
      
   The Earth is much bigger, therefore its gravity is much stronger. Therefore   
   it takes more energy to get off the surface. Also, it has an atmosphere so   
   that makes the job even harder because of drag. All this energy has to be   
   carried with the vehicle in the form of fuel and oxidiser. The mass of the   
   propellants makes up most of the mass of the vehicle because of this.   
      
   On the moon, there is no atmosphere and only about one sixth of the surface   
   gravity. And the spacecraft (LM ascent stage) is much less massive than the   
   complete Apollo spacecraft which was lifted off from Earth (CM+SM+LM   
   descent+LM ascent). The corresponding propellant requirement is much less.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)