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Space Exploration Politics -- and an Explanation of the Apollo Flag 'Mystery' (Video)
Meet Tom Moser. And here's another NASA oral history interview with him. And we interviewed him last week ourselves. Tom has been involved, one way or another, as engineer or manager, with every American manned space flight program since 1963. Now, among other things, he's thinking of ways multiple governments and private companies can share their resources to make future space exploration feasible, which may not be engineering -- but in many cases politics can be more important than designing and building the hardware, which is why it's worth learning about.
And thinking of hardware, do you remember the conspiracy people talking about how the U.S. flag on the moon was faked because there's no way it could wave in the breeze without an atmosphere? Moser gives us the inside scoop on that: it was an engineering screwup, and at least partly his fault. Whoops!
And thinking of hardware, do you remember the conspiracy people talking about how the U.S. flag on the moon was faked because there's no way it could wave in the breeze without an atmosphere? Moser gives us the inside scoop on that: it was an engineering screwup, and at least partly his fault. Whoops!
Either get a really cheap tripod when you do these types of interviews or a monopod. Having the image wander back and forth for five minutes is not good.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Mythbusters debunked the flag theory. It is caused by momentum and lack of air resistance.
Those of us watching in 1969 were told at the time that the flag 'flew' because of a stiff wire running across the top. The retroactive conspiracy theory that was concocted around the flag was perhaps the lamest of all time.
The problem is that BS seems to be more attractive to people than facts. Facts are boring. People don't want to think, they want a magical explanation to everything. Give them their sky-wizard, or Santa Claus, or dark and complicated "conspiracy theories". Those who want to learn the truth, learn the truth. We who know the truth must guard the well of knowledge and prevent it from being poisoned so that others can learn. But the people who don't want to learn, or who want to "unlearn", nothing can be done about them. Arguing with fools is futile.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.