| Congressional Representative Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Posts: 2,188 Points: 10,874, Level: 69 | Level up: 6%, 376 Points needed | | I have.
I suggest you review the explanations for each of the above points. Redzero's Moonhoax - How Apollo moon landings really happened Were all the photographs taken by the astronauts just too good?
They were being taken by amateur photographers in difficult conditions, yet they all appear almost perfect!
The astronauts received a great deal of training before they left Earth, part of this was in the operation of the cameras, which were specially designed by Hasselblad's to be used by the astronauts with their suits on.
The Apollo astronauts took around 17,000 photographs on the lunar surface. There's plenty of not-so-great photographs that NASA simply have never publicised. Over or under exposed, quint angles, accidental exposures. But those that the public are most familiar with are the best ones. Hasn't a top NASA person said that radiation is a big problem and something that prevents people living in space?
This is a quote that's often used as proof that we couldn't have gone to the moon or journeyed beyond the Van Allen belt. It's an accurate statement, radiation is a problem that will need to be conquered before any attempts are made to live or travel in space long-term. The problem exists if we want to live on the moon, travel to Mars, or even further. It was spending months or even years in space that was being discussed, not the short trips to the moon and back that the Apollo missions did. So the 'top NASA person' is being quoted out of context. The Van Allen belts are a band of concentrated radiation around the Earth. It's been estimated that you'd need a foot of lead casing to protect yourself from this, which the Apollo crafts didn't have. Why didn't this kill the astronauts on the way to the moon?
Radiation is a big problem when it comes to space travel and the Earth's magnetic field concentrates this radiation into the Van Allen belts that surround the Earth. No matter what, the Apollo crafts had to go through these belts and there was no way the Apollo crafts could afford to take all the weight of lead shielding with them. So they were bound to be exposed. The question is, just how serious would this exposure be? What you have to realize that the radiation involved isn't the same kind or intensity as you might get from a nuclear bomb. You don't fall sick and your hair doesn't all fall out. It's been calculated that travelling at speed through the Van Allen belt would result in exposure of 1 rem. Radiation sickness symptoms don't start to show until you get around 25. Once you reach 100 you're going to be ill. 500 and you're probably dead. So the exposure the astronauts received is pretty mild. But that isn't to say either that it can't do you any harm. Added to the exposure they got actually out on the moon, it is a risk that can't be fully quantified. Who knows what cancers could result from it? Given the choice most people would want to avoid this kind of exposure to radiation. But the astronauts risked it because they thought it was worth it. This, and all the other risks they faced, is what makes them remarkable people.
Last edited by knot_e_lady; 06-29-2007 at 07:36 AM.
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