I have always thought like this because it seems logical. Look at the illustration I did below. According to the illustration, the astronauts land on the moon upside down. Their legs are up and their heads down. Or is it like this? The rocket takes them up up up towards the moon. And all of a sudden the perspective changes and they start moving towards the moon downwards. Then they land on the moon heads up and feet down. Any clue how this thing works?
I always thought there was no up and down in space. There's even some kind of scientific theory about that. Google it.
The mass and gravity of the planet that we happen to be standing on or landing on makes us stick to the ground and feel as if we are standing "up." Of course, at any given time, there are people all over the Earth standing "up" from their perspective, even though they have counterparts on the other side of the planet who are standing at an 180 degree angle from them, yet they all feel as if they are standing "up." I am getting dizzy now...
I agree but then there is no real up or down in space it is just with respect to one's perception. But then when you go to the moon we go upwards and when you get closer to it, it suddenly becomes a downward movement to the moon. Right? or how does the scene unfold?
When you get close enough to the Moon to be pulled in by its gravitational field, you start your "descent" to the planet. The astronauts then use their positioning thrusters so that they land the way the lander was intended to land ("right side up".) The Moon does not care how you land, it just pulls you in.
That is what I thought. Then the UP and down perception is only relatively. There is no REAL up or down thingy in the Universe. I wonder what is beyond the universe.
That is correct. "Up" and "Down" are human creations to account for gravity on our planet. Our perceptions of Up and Down are based primarily on two of our sensory systems: our eyes and our middle ear.
My friend who is a teacher and very intelligent swears we didn't land on the moon and it was faked. Worth thinking about...
I know one of the engineers who helped to develop the Lunar Landing Module for NASA'a moon landing back in the 1960's when he was fresh out of engineering school. I asked him about this and he pointed out that the on one of the moon missions, they placed a laser reflector on the moon that anyone with the proper laser equipment can verify that the reflector is indeed on the moon. Not too long ago, a TV show called "Mythbusters" hit the reflector with a laser and proved it to be there for its audience. Their ratings would have been much higher, of course, if they proved that the reflector was not there.