OK, in all seriousness…
This guy reminds me of 15-year-old debate team stuff…he takes imprecise
language and statements from a variety of NASA folks locks onto the
inconsistencies as if they reveal some deeper, hidden truth. My favorite phrase
is that “NASA has an answer for everything we think of as moon-landing
deniers”…well duh, reality is full of truth and an unyielding bitch.
The truth is that Technology is a lot like muscle, use it or lose it. That’s
what it means when NASA people say we don’t currently have the technology to
fly to the moon. We lost it and just rebuilding the systems we had back then
presents a currently unacceptable risk to the astronauts. So here we go…
A college-level understanding of physics or more specifically, thermodynamics,
teaches you that temperature is simply a measure of the average speed of
molecules of the surrounding medium. To equate the concept of temperature at
altitude with the atmosphere’s surface capacity of heat transfer that we
intuitively understand is flawed. Yes, the temperature at the stratopause may
be same as the temperature on the surface, but you’ll still freeze your fingers
off if you take off your glove. That’s because that there’s effectively no air
there to help you retain your heat, so while the molecules are moving just as
fast as they are on the ground, there’s not very many available to do heat
transfer. The loss of heat due to it just radiating away at infrared will chill
you pretty quick. So…things in space get cold, but if you prevent the radiation
of the infrared heat with something shiny, like tin-foil, then you can stay
warm. Amazing how all those spaceships are made of tin-foil…that’s to retain
the heat from the astronauts and the internal heaters. In fact, when properly
operating, we worry more about things getting too warm in space. Another way to
think about it is like this…isn’t 60 degree water a lot colder to humans than
60 degree air? In fact, 60 degree water will kill you fairly quickly while 60
degree air is tolerable for a long time. Why is this? Is it our perception? No,
it’s simple heat transfer. Water is about 800 times more dense than air at the
surface which means that it’s a whole lot more effective in conducting heat
away from you than air.
OK, so don’t get me started on the radiation bullshit…during Gemini and Apollo,
we flew through the Van Allen belts exactly twice on each trip. Ever been
walking down the street and pass by one of those propane heaters that
restaurants use. You feel warm as you move by, but you don’t cook internally,
do you? Of course not because damage from radiation, whether it be thermal or
ionizing depends on several factors including, flux (how dense is the
radiation), exposure time, and target cross-section. We have to design our
spacecraft to be shielded from radiation and to shield humans from
radiation…again, due to the nature of the particles, tin-foil does quite well.
For Apollo, the duration of the trip through the belts was minutes to an hour.
That would be the same today, but we’re designing systems to keep astronauts in
space to and around the moon for weeks. That means that it’s a more challenging
task to shield them for a longer period.
For more, I need a campfire and some beers…see you all at ROCStock!
Allen
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Allen H. Farrington
http://www.allenfarrington.org
818-653-2284
On May 27, 2018, at 1:33 PM, Troy Monroe Stacey <tstacey001@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Anybody?
In all seriousness though: What was that one guy talking about saying we used
to have the technology then to visit the moon and now we don’t anymore?
Best,
Troy Monroe Stacey
-------------------
On May 26, 2018, at 9:44 PM, Troy Monroe Stacey <tstacey001@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
In all seriousness though: What was that one guy talking about saying we
used to have the technology then to visit the moon and now we don’t anymore?
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