Lessons of the "Fake Moon Flight" Myth (corrosive media culture alert)

The Skeptical Enquirer ^ | March, 2003 | James Oberg

[Duke Nukum]

I think we should prove it by sending these loonies on one-way trips to the moon. A good way to start a colony. And if these people get a real problem to deal with, like survival, they'll stop making up fake problems.

[Junior]

Shuttles orbit at 8kps.

[Gamecock]

WOW! My sister is gay

So is my sister-in-law. This is getting weird....

[RightWhale]

Did he ever show ya his mean left jab?

No, but his wife was there and she doesn't allow rowdyness.

[RightWhale]

Are you suggesting we refuel the thing, say, half a dozen times on the way down?

Probably just bolt on a drop tank of fly juice. But not to come down. Going the other way.

[RansomOttawa]

But not to come down. Going the other way.

Ah, so you mean fly it into orbit rather than hurl it strapped to a couple of boosters.

Also could be done. But apparently it takes a lot more fuel than just rocketing it into orbit from the Cape.

[tbpiper]

*shifts eyes back and forth rapidly*

You're all in on it! Everyone's involved!

OOOOOOkay. Nobody's gotta get hurt. Put the tinfoil down and slooooowly back away. We can work thru this thing. (OK GUYS!! NET 'EM!!!)

[DugwayDuke]

" why can't we slow the suttle down more in space so that it doesn't burn up when it re-enters the atmosphere?"

The simple answer is that it would take as much fuel to slow it down as it took to speed it up and get it up to that altitude. Look at the size of the boosters necessary to get to that speed and altitude. Look at the size of the shuttle.

[netmilsmom]

Did your gay sister-in-law think the moon landing is faked? I bet we have stumbled onto something....

[discostu]

Oh just what we need, a colony populated with people who don't believe they're where they are. The whole thing would get wiped out when one of them decided to prove it was a hoax by opening all the pressure doors.

[Brett66]

Of course it was faked, there isn't a crater underneath where it landed:

[RightWhale]

apparently it takes a lot more fuel than just rocketing it into orbit from the Cape

That would be an interesting exercise. But I was thinking of refuelling in orbit and continuing on. On and on into the solar system at least.

[Revolting cat!]

And finally, the ultimate visual PROOF!

[Brett66]

In all seriousness, the lander did leave a small indentation where there was fine, loose dust on the Lunar surface. It's not very pronounced though.

Apollo 11:

Apollo 12

[RightWhale]

fine, loose dust

Regolith, and fine, but not nearly as loose as they had feared before the landings. Can still picture the hypothetical description of the lander coming in and disappearing to the bottom of 600 feet of loose dust. Didn't turn out that way since some geologic process cements the particles together rather than keeping them dispersed in an electrostatic field. It would take a pretty good breeze to scoop out that much regolith, the blast from a descent motor for example.

[Gamecock]

Did your gay sister-in-law think the moon landing is faked? I bet we have stumbled onto something....

No, but only because my wife's family knows one of the astronauts.

But here is something bizarre: she thinks that aliens introduced life on planet Earth.

There must be a connection here somewhere!

[Oztrich Boy]

So could a person say theoretically, if fuel capacity were no issue, that the shuttle could theoretically fire thrusters in a manner that ceased its orbit, and yet maintained altitude?

Not in any practical sense. It needs the speed to offset the earth's gravity. It took all the energy in the main tank and the solid boosters to get the orbiter to that speed.

If somehow you started with the orbiter, main tank and booster package in orbit, it would be just sufficient to cancel the orbital speed.

minor caveat; some of the energy goes into the potential energy of altitude, but not much. It's only the difference between the speed of orbit at a ground hugging 4000 miles and actual orbit of 4200 miles (both measured from the centre of the Earth).

[capitan_refugio]

"Even Shelia Jackson Lee believes we landed on the moon, no - Mars, no - the moon, no... "

I don't think Shiela Jackson Lee could name the planets.

(By the way, are you the walrus? or the eggman?)

[Tribune7]

ABC's World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings chose the subject for his closing story: "Finally this evening, we're not quite sure what we think about this," he intoned. "But the space agency is going to spend a few thousand dollars trying to prove to some people that the United States did indeed land men on the moon."

The man's a disgrace on many levels.

[Tribune7]

I love the story about Buzz Aldrin decking that moon conspiracy guy.