Moon Landings: Did They Happen or Not?

[BHelmet]

A smart pap walk shoved to woke watchers as the return on the Moon. Please! Give me rather Alfalfa’s letter to Darla....

Ina, I want to understand what you are saying in these posts. I know I am sometimes guilty of using colloquialisms and idioms and local slang which may make some comments hard to figure out. So: pap walk?

And Buckwheat, I am old enough to remember Our Gang/Little Rascals and how they creeped me out in my childhood but I don’t remember Alfalfa’s letter to Darla. (Come to think of it, why were they showing these bizarre films from the 1920’s-1930’s to kids in the 50’s-60’s anyway? Very strange!)

I reply to the previous discussion, NASA did put astronauts on the Moon. NAsa managed that because and solely so, because NASA used german paperclips. The moment that resource finished, the old tech, became obsolete and decomissioned via the back door, not only never to be seen again, but left with no chances of reproducibility because of lack of ownership.

By German paper clips I assume you mean Werner Von Braun etc Nazis brought to US in operation paper clip? Not sure how lack of ownership of the old tech factors in or what you mean.

And by fog over stakeholders I assume you mean lack of clarity regarding the financial backers and powerful hands behind the recent moon “project”?

 

[Brewer]

In other news Elon Musk tells a crowd that his double vacuum tested, super cool looking IVA spacesuits don't really work that well. He is however working on it so soon he'll have a suit capable of conducting spacewalks.

I've been having a quick look at the SpaceX suits and those who use them. It's used by astronauts of various nations including Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

(Jan. 30, 2023) — A SpaceX launch and entry suit bears a Russian flag, and the name of Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, who will serve as a mission specialist of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station. Credit: SpaceX

In order for any item to be used in space it has to be rigorously tested and certified by the agency using it. I've searched, nothing, no certification evidence anywhere. Lots of pretty pictures though. I did however find some skepticism from a Russian engineer Vladimir Pirozhkov who stated in August 2020

SpaceX's Crew Dragon space suits are impressively designed, but their safety level remains an open question, said Vladimir Pirozhkov, CEO of the KINETICA High Complexity Prototyping Centre at the National University of Science and Technology MISiS.

Vlad's skepticism was recently confirmed by the man him self, Elon Musk. Though his onesie looks 'cool' you cannot move in the things when they're pressurized which makes them quite dangerous in the event of an accident. Other Russians had it figured out too.
Despite these shortcomings it appears that the ESA; NASA and Roscosmos have approved Musk's onesie as fit for purpose when it's clearly not. However I cannot find any evidence of certification anywhere. Nothing on the NASA tech server, pretty pix from the ESA and access forbidden for Roscosmos.
I can understand NASA and the ESA as being part of the circus but the Russians? Anyway, despite all the bad blood there's room for cooperation.

MOSCOW, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Russia's space state agency Roscosmos said on Thursday that a cross-flight programme with NASA to the International Space Station (ISS) had been extended until 2025, Interfax news agency reported. The cross-flights were extended "in order to maintain the reliability of the ISS operation" and will be carried out on Russian and U.S. spacecraft, Roscosmos said. The cross-flights involve sending one American astronaut to the ISS as part of the crew of a Russian spacecraft, and vice versa - one Russian cosmonaut as part of an American crew, Interfax reported.

Seems Russia's more than happy to allow it's finest to fly in one of Musk's flaky creations. Perhaps they don't fly at all.

 

[The Mechanic]

Of course, the next it's not a speculation.

Cosmos clearly indicated he was speculating when he stated (emphasis mine):

Yeah, there are many possibilities for that impression, including your speculation. We simply don't know, though, and it is just an impression after all. I can also imagine that such a flight is enormously stressful to body and mind, and doing a press conference afterward (even weeks after) might be quite challenging. Also, a simple consideration that applies to many people might play into it: they weren't looking forward or were even reluctant or unwilling to do such a press conference, not because they had to lie, but because they were exhausted and/or not keen to do it at all, because it wasn't a thing they like to do.

 

[Brewer]

Odie the lander is dead.

An uncrewed American lander that became the first private spaceship on the moon has met its ultimate end after failing to "wake up," the company that built it said.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines said late Saturday that the lander, named Odysseus, had not phoned home this week when its solar panels were projected to receive enough sunlight to turn on its radio.

But it was not in vain

"This confirms that Odie has permanently faded after cementing its legacy into history as the first commercial lunar lander to land on the moon," it said.

Strange though, 19 years ago a probe landed on Titan, a moon of Saturn

It sent full color stills and video of it's own landing back to earth from 1.5 billion km away!

A problem in the communications program limited the number of images that Huygens transmitted to Cassini, from about 700 to 376. Yet, to the excitement of planetary scientists back on Earth, it continued its transmissions for another three hours and 10 minutes during which it transmitted a view of its surroundings (224 images of the same view).

They're still chatting with the Voyager probes from up to 24 billion kms, they can still send them orders! Voyager 1 is 62500 times more distant than the moon, Saturn, 3906 however, sending a probe to our nearest neighbor 384000kms distant fails on a regular basis!

Finally, it looks like Artemis will be delayed, again. Problems with the heat shield and hatch, oh well, maybe sometime next decade!

 

[Brewer]

Not only are the Russians content to let their cosmonauts fly in Elon Musk's fashion before function onesies. They're now ferrying orbiting moron Don Petitt to the ISS!

Hopefully he's learned how to fight fires, deal with leaks, formulate plans and use a gas detector! Careful with that Russian tech too Don, don't lose it! He's got a lot to be thankful for, he's using tried and tested Russian space tech!

Why does Russia still co-operate with the US?