Phil Plait On The Moon Landing "Hoax" Dipshittery
At the ev psych conference in Binghamton this past weekend, a prof and I were talking about how great Phil Plait's blog is ("Bad Astronomer") and he reminded reminded me of this -- his debunking of the moon landing "hoax." An excerpt:
Bad: Ralph Rene, a self-proclaimed physicist, claims that the astronauts shifting in the cabin would change the center of mass, throwing the lunar lander off balance. They couldn't compensate for this, which would have crashed the lander. Thus, the landing was faked.Good: Rene is wrong. Evidently he doesn't know how the internet works either, because there is a website which describes how the attitude control was maintained on the lander during descent and ascent; it's the Apollo Saturn Reference page. There was a feedback control system on board the lander which determined if the axis were shifting. During descent, the engine nozzle could shift direction slightly to compensate for changes in the center of gravity of the lander (the technical term for this is gimbaling the nozzle). During ascent, the engine nozzle was fixed in position, so there was a series of smaller rockets which was used to maintain the proper attitude. Incidentally, every rocket needs to do this since fuel shifts the center of gravity as it is burned up by the rocket, yet Rene and the other HBs don't seem to doubt that rockets themselves work! So we have a case of selective thinking on the part of the HBs.
[Note (July 20, 2001): My thanks again to Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke for correcting a technical error in a previous version of this section. After describing the above scenario to me, he said the ascent stage of the lander was "a sporty ride".]
Yeah, that guy Ralph doesn't even rate a breath next to Neil Armstrong and real pilots. All he did was insult them - and other who did real work, the like of which hasn't been seen since.
Can you imagine just how far out there they were, in "screw up at all and you're dead" terms?
And Phil will be at DragonCon again this year. You'll find him a funny and engaging speaker, a delightful enthusiast of all kinds of knowledge!
Radwaste at April 6, 2011 2:56 AM
Some Penn & Teller fun with conspiracies (Moon landing about 3-1/2 minutes in, featuring Rene)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrGnODZKx3c
bjr at April 6, 2011 6:38 AM
What amazes me still, is that we went to the Moon on 64K of memory! That's what caused the program alarm on the computer during the descent of Apollo 11- Buzz Aldrin finally confessed, years later, to using both the landing radar and the ascent radar (to find the command module) at the same time, thereby overloading the computer memory, and causing the program alarm. In case of an abort, he wanted to be able to find the CM instantly, so instead of switching between them, which he really couldn't do (sorry Neil- I'm just trying to find Mike up there somewhere), he kept trying to use them both simultaneously. As a result, he almost inadvertently caused an abort.
Brian at April 6, 2011 10:47 AM
Maybe at the next ev psyche conference, someone can make presentation based upon the science fiction novels of Issac Asimov.
BOTU at April 6, 2011 10:50 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/04/06/phil_plait_on_t.html#comment-2008682">comment from BOTUBOTU, we're sorry you feel so unloved and in need of attention. Good luck getting some in real life.
Amy Alkon
at April 6, 2011 10:52 AM
I miss the X-Files...
Eric at April 6, 2011 12:16 PM
reminds me of the coneheads skit "man on the moon, hah!!!!!"
ronc at April 6, 2011 1:01 PM
But I evolved to want endless amounts of love and affirmation! And to marry thin-waisted bombshells who act like the "better" women in Jane Austen novels!
But maybe you are right. There is an aerobics instructor dropping hints....talk about cute.
BOTU at April 6, 2011 1:23 PM
One of the hilarious enduring stories told by the moon-landing conspiracists is that the moon walks were filmed on a Hollywood sound stage. And sure enough, they will show you pictures of a lunar scene with wires and steel girders overhead.
Those pictures are old NASA photos. They were taken in a big vacuum chamber (essentially a building that can be pumped down to vacuum) at JSC. It was used to practice procedures and test the suits and other equipment. I've been in there.
Cousin Dave at April 6, 2011 9:10 PM
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