Last month we brought you the news that dinosaursprobably puzzle us to the Moon . This calendar month , golf game musket ball have been found up there , which is n’t quite as exciting but bear with us .
Fifty years ago , on February 5 , 1971 , Apollo 14 extend to down on the Moon . As well as equipment for essay to square off the internal structure of our satellite , and to measure the composition of the lunar atmosphere , the astronauts took with them a six - iron golf game club straits and some golf balls .
His first shots did not go well , skimming the top of the testicle and institutionalize it just a few feet . On the third swing , clearly move by this counting against his score , he connected and the ball flew out of shot on a fairly small trajectory . Shepard manage to off the second egg on the first try , believing it had gone"miles and miles and mi " .
One of the globe was found by fellow astronaut Edgar Mitchell in a nearby volcanic crater , but the 2d was n’t found until half a century afterwards when visualise specialistAndy Saundersdigitally raise CAT scan of the original flick taken during Apollo 14 . Rather than the " miles and miles and miles " Shepard had thought he ’d hit , Saunders ' analysis revealed that , despite the low gravity on the Moon , the ball had not gone far at all .
" We can now moderately accurately specify that ball bit one move around 24 yards [ 22 meters ] , " Saunders pen for theUS Golfer ’s Association(USGA ) , " and chunk number two trip 40 yard [ 36 meters ] . "
However , as Saunders forestall , " The fact that Shepard even made liaison and got the ball airborne is exceedingly telling . " The cause would have restricted movement and the helmet would have made it very heavy to see , not to mention the one - 6th gravity and deficiency of atmosphere .
" I would challenge any club linksman to go to their local course and seek to hit a six - atomic number 26 , one - handed , with a one - quarter swing music out of an unraked bunker , " he toldBBC Sport . " Then imagine being fully fit , helmeted and wearing thick gloves . Remember also that there was small somberness to draw the golf-club head down toward the testicle . "
Kudos to Shepard for being the first individual to golf on the Moon , but it was , in all honesty , a fearful shot , even if he was wearing a inapt spacesuit .
" As a professional , I find out a multitude of excuses for poor golf performance , ' the cabaret are too old ' , ' I never get to flirt ' , ' I ’m injured ' , " pro golferGary Feltontold IFLScience . " The truth is that some golfers are risky golfer and they lie . They lie about why they play badly , they lie in also about their performance . Mr Shepard was , alas , a golfer who despite arguably ill - notify golfing garb , was a bit of a fabricator . You disastrously embellished your performance on the Moon . "
Saunders calculate that if a professional linksman were to hit a golf ball on the Moon at 298 kilometer per hour ( 185 miles per 60 minutes ) – 2016 PGA champion Jimmy Walker ’s Earthbound speed – at a clean 45 - academic degree slant , they could outshine Shepard by landing the egg an telling 2.62 mile ( 4.22 kilometers ) away , having stayed in the air for a full minute .
" My recommendation for golfer who choose to play the noble biz in space cause on the Moon would be a wide stance and a short backswing , " Felton comment . " And make certain no one is watching . "
