I've read the first article so far. Some really good points there, but I think he's missed it a bit on the "amount of fuel" needed to get to the Moon and back.
As I understand it, using the "slingshot effect" of orbiting higher and higher above the Earth (Hohmann transfers) until with a relatively small amount of rocket boost, the space capsule is sort of "slung" at the Moon, with various short "adjustments" of rocket firings according to need, the same process employed from the Moon back to Earth.
I would like to see where "von Braun's statement" re the enormous size of space vehicle required, came from. I've never seen it.
However CaptKronos and myself discussed the Moon landing subject around 11 years ago and I remain 70 +/30 - on the subject. Capitaine's view was similar to this writer inasmuch the technology was primitive, to say the least, the apparent on-board computer (for example) having less power than a very average cell phone. At least that was the view at the time of discussion.
One has to wonder what the alleged on-board computer DID have, given that the Commodore 64 was not available until 1982. Here is a run-down of it, apparently used on all Apollo flights
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_ComputerI've read elsewhere that Russian and American scientists DID exchange information despite the visible Cold War, the Russians reportedly having several mishaps of their first attempts at manned orbits.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judica-Cordiglia_brothers What is not discussed in the Wiki is that orbiting un-manned Soviet space-craft were also tracked before the "Cosmonaut" tragedies.
I became aware of said tragedies through Skeptoid, a supposedly skeptical site for critical analysis using science as its underlying base. While it is true that Skeptoid does a good job debunking relatively unimportant myths etc, it invariably takes the Party Line on all major significant events and issues. And true to form it "cast doubt" on the Russian cosmonaut deaths pre-Yuri Gagarin on one major point, that the Soviets did not have a vehicle capable of carrying a human cargo at the times of the alleged tragedies.
That was simply refuted in five minutes by yours truly with a couple of Links that clearly showed that at the dates of ALL the tragedies, they certainly did have such a vehicle. The Skeptoid article was added to in the public comments section by an experienced NASA scientist along the lines of that such stories have never been repeated in any Soviet or Russian newspapers since, which I posted back seemed a strange comment to make, since when have newspapers ever been reliably accurate in their reporting, especially Soviet media that (like in our countries) tow the current govt official storyline anyway ?
There was another point about the debunking of the Italian brothers' story re the tragedies. Given the public wonder that was prevalent in those days of orbiting vehicles (I remember it clearly) the spectre of flying off into space etc and a lonely death would have no doubt caused an outcry if steps had not been taken to disprove it. On both the USA and USSR. Such public uproar may have seriously damaged the US Space Program re funding etc. or at least reputation.
There's no doubt that the Soviets achieved so many firsts (as the writer states) and left America in as a poor second place for a long time.
Wiki :
"Over its 38-year history, the Soviet program achieved the first intercontinental ballistic missile (R-7), first satellite (Sputnik 1), first animal in Earth orbit (the dog Laika on Sputnik 2), first human in space and Earth orbit (Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1), first woman in space and Earth orbit (Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6), first spacewalk (Alexei Leonov on Voskhod 2), first Moon impact (Luna 2), first image of the far side of the Moon (Luna 3) and uncrewed lunar soft landing (Luna 9), first space rover (Lunokhod 1), first sample of lunar soil automatically extracted and brought to Earth (Luna 16), and first space station (Salyut 1). Further notable records included the first interplanetary probes: Venera 1 and Mars 1 to fly by Venus and Mars, respectively, Venera 3 and Mars 2 to impact the respective planet surface, and Venera 7 and Mars 3 to make soft landings on these planets"
An impressive number of firsts, and I'm sure the Soviet leadership wasn't as touchy about losing some cosmonauts as the Americans would have been. They also produced more solid looking space craft than the US. Some of their constructs remind me of Steampunk
I saw the Mercury capsule way long ago at the Wellington show buildings and how it ever survived is a continuous wonder to me. The heat shield was burnt right down to a few inches, right behind the astronauts back, the skin of the craft looked vulnerable to a can-opener. It was still a marvelous piece of engineering any way one looks at it.
Two thing that aren't mentioned much, if at all, is the Moon dust getting into everything, billions of years just sitting there on the Moon's surface, only disturbed by asteroid or comet hits, not perturbed by any wind. Fine sticky dust. Apparently it got in everywhere and at one point was a serious concern that it could interfere with the capsule's electronics, including the on-board computer. The other thing that I've always thought about re any Moon base, is the electro-magnetic ionosphere that we exist in all ur lives on Earth, a "cavity" called the Schumann resonance that is continuously excited by around 100 lightning strikes every second, around the world, and which sets up a primary wave frequency that matches the meditative state of the human brain. Obviously a natural phenomena, that even the space station orbits within, it doesn't exist on the Moon. What would they do to emulate it if they ever stayed there for months, or years ? How would it affect the Moon base inhabitants ?
At the last, I clearly remember the statement during the Apollo years that with each subsequent trip, they learned as much as the previous trips combined. If in fact it was too dangerous to keep on sending men to the Moon, why didn't they just say so ? And continue to send unmanned probes to continue gathering data in the same way they are doing with Mars ?
Did the Moon have no more significant secrets that were worth taking the time and trouble (and expense) to try and find ? The large time gap only grows larger, and the Russians haven't bothered either, when they were already ahead of the Americans. Did they realize that manned Moon trips weren't feasible given the huge radiation belts that stand off the Earth, surrounding a large percentage of the globe ? And that the Moon trips were after all bogus, the Russians not saying anything for the common interests of the International Few, the top scientists that covertly work together around the world that on the public face is divided into different countries and political doctrines ?
I saw the Mercury capsule way long ago at the Wellington show buildings and how it ever survived is a continuous wonder to me. The heat shield was burnt right down to a few inches, right behind the astronauts back, the skin of the craft looked vulnerable to a can-opener. It was still a marvelous piece of engineering any way one looks at it.
