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I readily believe that the Apollo missions were real. It takes a government to really foul up space exploration.
Consider that the engineering consensus in the 20th century was that any long term and frugal Lunar space exploration would require the following:
[] Inexpensive launch from Earth to Earth orbit
[] Permanent Earth orbiting space station (in high orbit)
[] Permanent Moon orbiting space station
[] Inexpensive shuttle from orbit to orbit
[] Inexpensive shuttle from Lunar orbit to the Lunar surface.
With such a system, only fuel and supplies would be consumed.
NASA threw away most of the rocket for each Apollo mission. Now THAT sounds like a REAL government program, for sure.
“It is commonly believed that man will fly directly from the earth to the moon, but to do this, we would require a vehicle of such gigantic proportions that it would prove an economic impossibility. It would have to develop sufficient speed to penetrate the atmosphere and overcome the earth’s gravity and, having traveled all the way to the moon, it must still have enough fuel to land safely and make the return trip to earth. Furthermore, in order to give the expedition a margin of safety, we would not use one ship alone, but a minimum of three … each rocket ship would be taller than New York’s Empire State Building [almost ¼ mile high] and weigh about ten times the tonnage of the Queen Mary, or some 800,000 tons.”
Wernher von Braun, the father of the Apollo space program, writing in Conquest of the Moon
"......Next up is the massive amount of fuel that will be required to power all of those rockets, for both the ascent and descent stages of the mission. The ascent stage in particular is going to be a bit of a fuel hog, as ascending 69 miles and breaking free of the Moon’s gravity is a formidable challenge, to say the least. Though it may only have 1/6 the gravitational pull of Earth, keep in mind that it is still a force strong enough to create the tides here on Earth, 234,000 miles away.
I’m not a rocket scientist, by the way, so I am sure that there are quite a few components that I am leaving off of my lunar module – but that’s okay, because our spaceship is already feeling really cramped just with the stuff listed so far. And we’re just getting started.
Next we have to include everything required to keep ourselves alive and well. We aren’t going to be there very long, of course, and space is obviously limited, but we will still require some basic amenities. We will, after all, have to sleep somewhere in the ship, won’t we? Or will we just unfold cots on the lunar surface? We will also require a sanitation/septic system of some kind......
Anyway, getting back to our packing list, in addition to a sanitation system, it is imperative that we bring along an adequate supply of food, water and oxygen – and not just enough to last for the planned duration of our visit, but enough to supply a small safety cushion should anything go wrong. Because from what I have heard, running out of food, water or oxygen while on the Moon can really screw up an otherwise perfectly good trip. The oxygen is especially important, so we’re going to need a really good, reliable system to deliver that oxygen, and to, you know, recharge the oxygen tanks in our spacesuits so we can walk around on the Moon and jump like 8” or 9” high like the Apollo guys did. And a back-up oxygen system probably wouldn’t be a bad idea.
We are also going to need to install a top-of-the-line heating and cooling system. Probably several of them, actually. Because the ‘weather’ on the Moon, so to speak, can be a bit unpleasant. According to the experts over at NASA, daytime highs average a balmy +260° F, but it cools off quite a bit at night, dropping to an average of -280° F. If you’re looking for anything between those two extremes, you won’t really find it on the Moon. It’s pretty much one or the other. If you’re in the sun, you’re going to be boiled alive, and if you’re out of the sun, you’re going to be flash frozen.
I’m not at all sure how the air conditioning system is going to work, come to think of it, since air conditioning requires a steady supply of – and please stop me if I am stating the obvious here – air. And the Moon doesn’t really have a lot of that......"
I never questioned it or cared much one way or the other, but I ran across this article, which is long, but can be read part by part.
For those who are curious and open minded, this is a very interesting and entertaining read, complete with photos:
So every single expert in the movie industry is in on the conspiracy?
The American culture is fantasy, man.
Believing is easy.
"The goal of any dissident writer is to crack open the doors of perception enough to let a little light in – so that hopefully the seeds of a political reawakening will be planted. There are many doors that can be pried open to achieve that goal, but this one seems particularly vulnerable. Join me then as we take a little trip to the Moon. Or at least pretend to."
I don't trust this guy. He ended his sentence with a preposition.
".......But as remarkable as it was to get the astronauts safely to and from the Moon, their survival while on the Moon was equally remarkable. To say that the Moon is an environment incompatible with the survival of humans would be a considerable understatement – which brings us to our next topic of discussion: those amazing NASA Moonwalking suits.
Those suits were able to provide the astronauts with everything they needed to stay alive in the Moon’s harsh environment. Remember NASA’s elaborate rendering of what a Moon work station protected from space radiation would look like? Neil and Buzz didn’t need any of that fancy stuff because they were wearing the magic suits. And those extreme temperatures of +260° F to -280° F? Not a problem when you’re wearing the magic suit. Not only could they provide the cooling needed to combat the searing temperatures in the sun, but they could also provide the heat to counteract those frigid shadows.
As can be seen in NASA’s photos, the egress side of the lunar modules (the side with the ladder and hatch) was usually in the shade (though almost always well lit). What that means is that, after traipsing around in the sun for a spell, the astronauts would have had to step into the shadows to reenter the spacecraft. And when they did so, those spacesuits were apparently smart enough to react instantly and switch over from turbo-charged air conditioning to blast-furnace heating in the blink of an eye. Awesome!
In addition to providing radiation protection that today’s technology is unable to match, and a climate control system that is beyond anything available in the twenty-first century, the magic suits also provided the astronauts with breathable air, which definitely came in handy. What the suits did, in essence, was provide the astronauts with their own little portable, climate-controlled, radiation-protected atmosphere.
Of course, to actually do that (if we’re pretending that it could be done at all), the suits would have had to have been pressurized. And it is perfectly obvious from all the photos that the suits were not, in fact, pressurized, because if they were, the astronauts would have looked like the Michelin Man bouncing around on the surface of the Moon......"
I readily believe that the Apollo missions were real. It takes a government to really foul up space exploration.
Consider that the engineering consensus in the 20th century was that any long term and frugal Lunar space exploration would require the following:
[] Inexpensive launch from Earth to Earth orbit
[] Permanent Earth orbiting space station (in high orbit)
[] Permanent Moon orbiting space station
[] Inexpensive shuttle from orbit to orbit
[] Inexpensive shuttle from Lunar orbit to the Lunar surface.
With such a system, only fuel and supplies would be consumed.
NASA threw away most of the rocket for each Apollo mission. Now THAT sounds like a REAL government program, for sure.
You're describing a system with, what, 3 different shuttle systems and two orbiting space stations - one of them in lunar orbit - as "frugal"?
You're describing a system with, what, 3 different shuttle systems and two orbiting space stations - one of them in lunar orbit - as "frugal"?
Do the math...
Each Apollo mission was composed of a Saturn V.
Apollo 11 - 17 account for SEVEN huge throw aways (ignoring the orbital missions)
Versus
1 earth orbit shuttle (3 passenger), 1 orbit-to-orbit shuttle (3 passenger), 1 lunar orbit shuttle (3 passenger)
1 earth orbiter, 1 lunar orbiter
...
At the end of each mission, the vessels would remain, needing only fuel and resupply.
...
Frugal? Yes.
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