Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!news.arc.nasa.gov!skipper!shafer From: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Re: == No Subject == Message-ID: Date: 16 Jun 91 16:50:27 GMT References: <1991Jun16.125922.7401@demon.co.uk> Sender: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov Organization: NASA Dryden, Edwards AFB, CA Lines: 41 In-reply-to: printf@cix.compulink.co.uk's message of 16 Jun 91 12:59:22 GMT In article <1991Jun16.125922.7401@demon.co.uk> printf@cix.compulink.co.uk (Ian Stirling) writes: #In article <2955@ke4zv.UUCP> gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes: # ##The only manmade structure that can be seen with the naked eye from space, ##the Great Wall of China, has been around for a fair amount of time in #....... # >BZZZT...Wrong. TONS of stuff is visible from LEO. Do you think that >Manhattan or LA suddenly become invisible because you are 120 miles >up? Perhaps the Great Wall is the only object visible from the Moon or >somesuch distance. > BZZZZZT,BZZZZZZT WRONG WRONG WRONG. 8^) The Great Wall of China is the only thing visible from space with "the naked eye." You're quite incorrect. I asked Gordon Fullerton (you know, STS-2, etc) about this and he said that the Great Wall isn't even visible in LEO. However, quite a few man-made structures are visible from LEO, including dams, airports, freeways in the deserts, and cities. Dave Scott (Apollo 15) once told me that the only man-made thing he could see from the moon was city lights at night and even those were pretty dim. I've been to the Great Wall and it's not very big, it's tan, and the chaparrel grows right up to it. I think you'd be hard-pressed to see it from 40,000 ft, let alone LEO. -- Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA "Turn to kill, not to engage." CDR Willie Driscoll