dafydd
Banned
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- Feb 14, 2008
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When did Armstrong say that?
No doubt Pat will provide us with full details for this and any future statements that he makes.
When did Armstrong say that?
I wonder how, in Patrick's imagined version, NASA knew where the LRRR had landed.
Jack by the hedge,
I had mentioned this previously at my post #1040. Donald Beattie was the Program Manager for the Lunar Surface Experiments. Beattie mentions here in his book TAKING SCIENCE TO THE MOON that an LRRR device capable of reporting its own coordinates when struck by laser light had been developed by the Apollo Program Scientists.
<snip>
I suggest such a scenario is quite reasonable. A landing by an unmanned Surveyor type craft with such an LRRR or LRRRs, capable of reflecting laser light and also generating/calculating the LRRR's lunar coordinates may well have been what happened.
So we had the technology to deploy a laser reflector on the moon and we had the technology to shoot people into space. We just never combined the two?
<snip>
So NASA definitely was able to land LRRR devices on the moon and demonstrate their presence by 08/01/1969.
How was the secret Surveyor mission managed? Where and when was the launch and how was it disguised? Who built the "missing" Surveyor craft and all the accompanying hardware? Who controlled the secret mission once it was launched?
What was the degree of accuracy in locating the know Surveyor landings?
I have a simpler solution, Patrick. The secret robotic LRRR was launched by the same SaturnV stack that was pretending to launch Apollo 11. It made it to the Moon via the same CSM and LM that Apollo 11 pretended to have. And after the LRRR deployed, the fake LM continued to sit on the surface in case some sneaky Russkies happened to fly over with a camera.
But want to know what would make the plan even more elegant? Instead of trying to accomplish all of this with 1960's robotics, all you need is a small number of dare-devil volunteers who will ride the bird down and personally deploy the LRRR. Heck, while they are there they can even deploy some other scientific packages and save you having to fake the data from them (c.f. ALSEP.) And as a final bonus, these highly trained volunteers could also fake the radio broadcasts convincing the listening world that the Apollo missions were actually taking place.
No forum member has presented any evidence to refute/counter this claim.
Indeed. But it didn't make much sense, hence my questioning.Jack by the hedge,
I had mentioned this previously at my post #1040.
I strongly suspect you misunderstand what he wrote. I don't think he describes a device with that capability at all.Donald Beattie was the Program Manager for the Lunar Surface Experiments. Beattie mentions here in his book TAKING SCIENCE TO THE MOON that an LRRR device capable of reporting its own coordinates when struck by laser light had been developed by the Apollo Program Scientists.In light of Beattie's report on this matter, one solution to the LRRR placement mystery would be for an LRRR with this coordinate reporting capacity to have been sent up to the moon by way of an unmanned Surveyor type craft.
(My highlighting)Here is Beattie;
"USGS had similar concerns but thought the biggest problem would be locating and documenting the sites visited, and in particular sampled, so that accurate traverse maps and profiles could be reconstructed back on Earth. The Flagstaff team had devised a surveying staff that would reflect a laser beam from a ranging device and automatically record the coordinates of a position on the lunar surface. This approach was based on the simulations and exercises we had been conducting for the post-Apollo missions, which suggested that without some type of surveying instrument it would be almost impossible for an astronaut to accurately locate his position on the Moon and associate a sample or observation with a specific point. Lunar geologic maps made without such positioning would be seriously degraded in value, since to establish map locations we would have to depend on some type of dead reckoning or coarse Earth-tracking and reconstruction of the traverse based on voice communication."
Donald A. Beattie. Taking Science to the Moon: Lunar Experiments and the Apollo Program (Ebook Locations 1614-1619).
I'm still not following your logic on this.
Indeed. But it didn't make much sense, hence my questioning.
I strongly suspect you misunderstand what he wrote. I don't think he describes a device with that capability at all.
(My highlighting)
It seems entirely clear to me that what Beattie is describing is surveying equipment of the type which is commonplace nowadays. He's describing a surveyor's pole with a retroreflector, and a rangefinding laser theodolite which will automatically record the direction and distance to the pole. It records relative position, not absolute position.
This is plainly equipment to be used to create accurate maps of the astronauts traverse of the lunar landscape, relative to the position of their base. It does not sound at all like equipment for determining the base's absolute position on the lunar surface.
It does not sound remotely like what you imagine: an active LRRR which detects when it is illuminated by an earth-based laser and responds by somehow transmitting its location to earth. That's fantasy. You do not see the obvious problem that this imaginary LRRR itself would have no idea where on the moon it was, so what coordinates could it transmit?
I'm afraid Patrick that, on examination, your version of the story collapses like a house of cards.
I'm still not following your logic on this.
Me neither.