NASA Administrator Bill Nelson recently hyped up the so-called "China space threat theory" again at a hearing of the US House Budget Committee, but he made a common-sense mistake that attracted ridicule and criticism from netizens.
Bill Nelson, the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), responded to questions about China's space program at a hearing of the U.S. House Budget Committee, as reported by Sky News on April 18. He mentioned that the date for China's landing on the moon is 2030, and that "this time is still coming forward." "My concern is that if the Chinese land first, they will say, 'This is our territory, don't come in,'" he said. ”
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson spoke at the hearing
However, according to a newly leaked video of the hearing, Bill Nelson made a low-level mistake when talking about China's moon landing program. When he was asked what China is doing on the far side of the moon, he said: "Chinese probes will land on the far side of the moon", adding that "the far side of the moon is forever in darkness and the Americans are not going to go there." ”
His statement also quickly attracted questions and refutations from netizens. Some netizens bluntly said: "Bill Nelson, are you an idiot?" Some netizens pointed out that Bill Nelson's statement that "the far side of the moon is always in darkness" is obviously inappropriate, although the far side of the moon is always facing away from the earth, but there is sunlight. Some netizens joked: "Is there a big umbrella on the moon?" ”
In 2019, the American media explained the question "Is the far side of the moon really dark?" That misconception can be traced back to a 1955 television special by The Walt Disney Company, which talked about the other side of the moon being always dark and about imaginary future astronauts throwing flares, the report said. In 1973, the British rock band Pink Floyd released the famous album "The Dark Side of the Moon", which popularized the term "dark side". Harvard astronomer Avi Lobb explains, "The other side of the moon sometimes sees the sun. The other side is not dark, just far away. This has always been a misconception. ”
Xu Xiaolong