"The growing importance of all this peering at, prodding, pounding, baking
and growing plants upon moon soil is that the results are contradicting most
of the moon theories of the past 15 years. It is not often that scientific
concepts are set by the ears, and the piquancy this times lies in the way
that the bulk of serious scientists originally believed that putting men
on the moon was an unnecessary extravagance; instruments and unmanned probes
could do the job, they felt, for a fraction of the cost and none of the risk.
But, as it turns out, they could not. The instruments that were sent to the
moon ahead of the astronauts did not produce the same results that the
actual collection of rock samples has done..."
- Economist editorial, 1-9-71
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