Apollo 11 Moon Landing Revisited: Hoax ~vs~ Debunk

[catsmate]

Do you mean that it could start with, "I think therefore I am", and get as far as deducing the existence of rice pudding and income tax before anyone managed to turn it off?

But what about VAT and semolina?

 

[Andy_Ross]

Who would want a whole vat of semolina?

 

[junkshop]

Who would want a whole vat of semolina?

Me, as long as it has a good skin on it.

 

[Mojo]

Who would want a whole vat of semolina?

I think that used to be part of school dinners.

[shudder]

 

[welshdean]

I was trawling through the NASA archive and I think @Vixen might have a point regarding the 'Nixon' call.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Me, as long as it has a good skin on it.

With raspberry jam

 

[Trebuchet]

I was trawling through the NASA archive and I think @Vixen might have a point regarding the 'Nixon' call.
View attachment 73531

Curse you, AI!
I'm reminded of one of my favorite Azimov stories, The Feeling of Power, in which a far future need rediscovers how to do basic arithmetic at a time when it was forgotten because of computers. Including pocket computers with glowing red numbers.
He saved the Earth which was at war with aliens and could now have small agile spaceships without building size computers and large staffs.
This was written in the 1950s. In 15 years NASA had small computers to guide Apollo and I would soon have one with glowing re numbers.

 

[Axxman300]

My favorite part of Apollo 13 is when the Mission Control guys bust out their sliderules, pencils, and paper to confirm a calculation. I don't know if they even still teach how to use a sliderule any longer. People forget what was common practice before easy access to computers, and it make me sad. Vixen is advancing a version claiming our lack of 21st century computing technology is proof the lunar landings were not possible. It's the same thing as claiming the Egyptians couldn't have built the pyramids because they lacked heavy euipment.

That;s why I don't mind posting in this thread. People need to be reminded how smart people once conducted affairs with hopes these practices aren't lost to time.

 

[Andy_Ross]

My favorite part of Apollo 13 is when the Mission Control guys bust out their sliderules, pencils, and paper to confirm a calculation. I don't know if they even still teach how to use a sliderule any longer. People forget what was common practice before easy access to computers, and it make me sad. Vixen is advancing a version claiming our lack of 21st century computing technology is proof the lunar landings were not possible. It's the same thing as claiming the Egyptians couldn't have built the pyramids because they lacked heavy euipment.

That;s why I don't mind posting in this thread. People need to be reminded how smart people once conducted affairs with hopes these practices aren't lost to time.

You don't see books of log tables any more.
We all had one at school.

 

[EHocking]

…
Those telephone lines stretching to the moon—isn't their status still classified?

Must be, cos no one, until now, had ever known about them.

 

[Steve]

Log tables, slide rules, learned them all. My start in the mechanical engineering field coincided with the availability of hand calculators that didn't cost an arm and a leg so I never used them in my work.

 

[Steve]

Must be, cos no one, until now, had ever known about them.

Vixen knew

 

[GlennB]

You don't see books of log tables any more.
We all had one at school.

With all the trig functions too? Happy days

 

[welshdean]

You old buggers, IIRC, mine was the first year to do away with log books. We were shown how to use them, but that was about 40 mins (one lesson period) in 5 years of comp.

 

[Ranb]

It works like this. You read a few interesting articles in magazines and newspapers. Then, in conversation you mention it and add a link from perhaps wikipedia for those interested.

Ironic. I thought it worked like this. I read one of your posts in which you complained that there was not enough testing of the Apollo hardware prior to sending men to the moon. Then I mentioned that this testing had in fact taken place and listed the flights in which it happened.

I guess I could have posted links, but all you had to do was go to a site like Wikipedia and type in "Apollo program", and it would give you more information than you ever needed to know. This information that has been around for over 50 years, but only more recently has been collected in a single website with hundreds of useful links embedded in it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program

 

[Foster Zygote]

Curse you, AI!
I'm reminded of one of my favorite Azimov stories, The Feeling of Power, in which a far future need rediscovers how to do basic arithmetic at a time when it was forgotten because of computers. Including pocket computers with glowing red numbers.
He saved the Earth which was at war with aliens and could now have small agile spaceships without building size computers and large staffs.
This was written in the 1950s. In 15 years NASA had small computers to guide Apollo and I would soon have one with glowing re numbers.

I remember a Clarke short story, written around the same period, that describes an enormous interplanetary warship, with the bulk of its mass consisting of the guidance computer.

 

[Ranb]

You don't see books of log tables any more.
We all had one at school.

I learned about log tables and slide rules in 1976 or so. Back when the TI-30 was sold for the rather high price of $25. I was also deeply involved in black and white photography with my own darkroom and developing equipment.

By the time I was in Nuclear Power School in 1984, no one bothered with log tables and we were taught to use proper calculators if we did not already know how. We were just not allowed to use a pre-programmed calculator during a test.

I am not nostalgic for any of that now that we have readily available calculators, computers and digital photography.

 

[theprestige]

Fair point. So, how plausible do you think it is that in order to land, they just need to switch off the engine and move the gearr stick around a little bit to avoid a massive crater? 'We only had 15 secs of fuel left' and then on lift off they had to use a pencil as one of the thrusts had broken off. OK, I am not saying it didn't happen but the idea the thing didn't topple over is touch and go.

Neil Armstrong was an elite test pilot. His vocation was making fine adjustments to thrust and attitude, under severe time constraints, in life or death situations. He was one of a select few men who could be relied upon to handle exactly this kind of situation. And NASA selected exactly those men.

What would be implausible is Armstrong not acting like an elite test pilot, while landing a test spacecraft on the moon.

 

[theprestige]

Yeah

 

[Trebuchet]

Log tables, slide rules, learned them all. My start in the mechanical engineering field coincided with the availability of hand calculators that didn't cost an arm and a leg so I never used them in my work.

Me too. Got my TI99, I think it was, about halfway through my first job.
Just because you dont understand how they did it doesn't mean they didn't.
Vixen lives in Europe. I'm sure she's seen a cathedral or three. Fantastic structures more than 500 years old. I dont know how they did it, but I'm glad they did.