The ways of the Shyster
What if they are playing with maps?????????
Let's assume for the moment that they are playing with maps, that even though Emil Shyster could do all of this by way of something sophisticated like employing a Julian or Besselian accounting system, he chooses instead to mess with maps, pretends to say something that the map really doesn't. It is plausible and we should examine that possibility. How would it look?
Here is the link to the official NASA map referenced by my forum colleagues previously and myself now.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/LAM2_CMP-flown.jpg
Note the missing "I" from the labeling system running up the left hand side . The letters A through W provide for latitude reference with both the letters "I" and "O" missing. For longitude reference, the numbers 1 through 27 run across the bottom of the image. There are no "missing" numbers, 1 through 27 all there.
By my calculation, each small square is roughly 1.96 X 1.96 minutes of arc in dimension. So "Tranquility Base" in those days was said to be at 00 41 15 north and 23 26 00 east. Their best estimate to command module simulator pilot Michael Collins per the Voice Transcript as referenced above was J.5/7.7. These were the real time numbers available to fight technicians based on this imagery to use or not use as a part of a launch solution.
Post fight, Tranquility Base is determined to be at J.65/7.54. So the real time map estimate at J.5/7.7 differs from the confirmed location of Tranquility Base by 0.15 grid units of latitude(north) and .16 units of longitude(west). Let's see where that takes us on the moon.
0.15 X 1.96 gives 0.294 minutes of arc. So J .5 is 00 41 15 north minus 0.294 X 60 seconds equals
00 40 57 north.
For the longitude coordinate we have 23 26 00 east minus .16 X 1.96 minutes of arc gives
23 25 41 east.
So the NASA map J .5/7.7 equivalent in degrees/minutes/seconds notation is 00 40 57 north and 23 25 41 east. And indeed that is even closer to Tranquility Base than the real time H. David Reed calculated rendezvous radar solution that we find in the Apollo 11 Mission Report. That solution was 0.676 N and 23.40 E or equivalently 00 40 17 north and 23 24 00 east.
Reed's rendezvous radar solution was 1200 feet off or so distant from Tranquility Base and this map solution is better still than Reed. My rough calculation gives 690 feet distant.
Here's that memorable quote again from the Aldrin Apollo Lunar Surface Journal interview. Here's Buzz talking about how everything worked great, but at the same time, nobody knew where they were. And remember that "exactly" there was not Aldrin, that was the editor doing something he should not have done. Probably Aldrin told him to add the word "exactly" after Aldrin proof read and was given the option to change what was to become widely published text. I do not know that for a certainty, but would certainly seem to be the case here. Here's Buzz;
" Aldrin - "Somewhere, we had a state vector (three-axis position and velocity) update because of the tracking data that Houston got once we came around. But, how that happened and whether we were aware of it, I don't remember. I know that a lot of people got credit for developing the tracking filter that allowed them to do that. That neat capability contributed to the accuracy of our touchdown, even though nobody knew (exactly) where we were." "
So nobody knew where you were Buzz? Hope it is OK I left out the word "exactly" since I do want to quote you accurately.
So maybe the Shyster's game was simpler than I had thought it was. Reed walks into work. There are no good numbers, none "even close" to one another, all 5 solutions available to Reed when he steps into his FIDO role that am are no closer than 4.73 miles from Tranquility Base give or take as we learn in retrospect.
All five solutions "all over the map". Shyster's got the map. They tell Reed to solve for Tranquility. He does, based on phony trajectory stuff. How can any of this be real? By that I mean, really landing astronauts. They are parking stuff on the moon. That is real, and much of the telemetry is genuine in the sense it relates to that parking stuff, and so does come from a "genuine mission" in that sense.
So J .5/7.7 is dished to Collins flying his simulator from more or less simulated directly east to simulated directly west, 17 simulated degrees to the west of the planet earth as it would have appeared to real astronauts that day from the surface of the moon, real astronauts trying to find Collins were this not all a ruse. The simulated Columbia was 69 miles up, 17 degrees to the west of the second most easily spottable object in the sky, the earth. Actually, according to Neil, its one of the only two objects that you can see in the lunar sky, even if you are walking around around with your visor down, or unless you really are up there with a fancy telescope.
Is this Lake Tahoe?