In APOLLO 21 there are two questions brought up that the author has never heard any astronaut reflect upon:

1) During the real Apollo lunar landing missions the sun was climbing the sky above the lunar surface where the astronauts performed their exploration. This means that the shadows became shorter and shorter as time progressed. However, the shadows must also have become darker and darker due to continuously decreasing earthshine. This is something that the author does not know if any of the lunar astronauts ever observed. In APOLLO 21 the author lets one of the astronauts say that indeed he can see a slightly darker shadow now compared to the previous day. Is there anyone out there who knows the answer to this issue?

2) During the Apollo lunar spaceflights there were a number of remarks made on the smell of the lunar dust after ingress of the Lunar Module. Apparently the soil smelled like gunpowder. Now, there have been reports of something called ‘the smell of space’ after some spacewalks performed from the Space Shuttle in Earth orbit. Again some kind of gunpowder smell was noticed. What the author thinks is that the smell from the lunar soil is actually ‘the smell of space’ and not the smell of the soil itself. This means that if there had been no dust on the Moon and the astronauts had entered their Lunar Module after their lunar excursions there still had been gunpowder smell since the spacesuits had been exposed to ‘the smell of space’. In APOLLO 21 the author lets one of the astronauts reflect on this issue. Does anyone know the answer to this query?

If you have any comments on this, please contact Frank Hogan at: apollo21@eml.cc