Post by miked on Jun 18, 2008 1:02:05 GMT -4
Here's something I wrote a few years ago on the subject of debunking the hoax, from just a Telecomms point of view, especially overseas involvees. I was one of those:
The Apollo "hoax"
Tracking and Communications Considerations
There was a worldwide network of tracking ships, aircraft and ground stations (the Manned SpaceFlight Network) providing communications with the Apollo spacecraft. If there was a hoax then the many people involved would have had to have been either part of it, or taken in by it. Most of these were not even US nationals, let alone US government conspirators. There were 170 Australians in Canberra directly involved, for instance.
In either case, they had to be receiving radio signals which corresponded to spacecraft going to, orbiting, at and coming from, the moon. The signals would have had to be coming from the right part of the sky for a lunar mission, and to incorporate the correct Doppler shifts and delays for such a trajectory. The antenna pointing angles would have had to be good to within a fraction of a degree because of the narrow beamwidth (0.3 deg) at the frequency used (2.3GHz). If any of these parameters had been incorrect it would have been obvious to the tracking operators, as well as the many personnel at Houston receiving and analysing the data
It's hard even today to try to visualise how this could be done but let's try. You would have to put an unmanned transmitting spacecraft on the right trajectory – there is no way of simulating a radio signal of something doing a lunar mission other than an actual transmitter on a spacecraft – NO WAY.
This signal had to be modulated in some way with voice, telemetry and TV. It could have been done by transmitting from the earth and relaying from the hoax spacecraft, but with great difficulty. There would have had to have been at least three ground stations to do the surreptitious transmitting, at least two outside the US, to provide communications 24hr per day. And the faked voice, telemetry and TV would have had to have been transmitted from the source (Area 51?) out to these stations without anybody in the world being aware of it. Even if remotely possible within the US, highly unlikely overseas. All of this relaying would have been doubling the expected delays – again obvious to the operators.
And the whole system would have to be interactive so that the origin of the signals on earth would respond to commands and voice sent from the (genuine) ground stations and relayed via the fake spacecraft (more than one) to the hoax ground stations – wherever they were – and again by some means back to Area 51.
It should be obvious, then, that a hoax is highly unlikely, if not impossible, purely from the point of view of Tracking and Communications, let alone any others. There are many non-US nationals (aliens?!) still around who are proud to have been part of one of (US) man's greatest achievements, and take the hoax assertions as a stupid affront.
Mike Dinn – Canberra – November 2002
(One of those)
The Apollo "hoax"
Tracking and Communications Considerations
There was a worldwide network of tracking ships, aircraft and ground stations (the Manned SpaceFlight Network) providing communications with the Apollo spacecraft. If there was a hoax then the many people involved would have had to have been either part of it, or taken in by it. Most of these were not even US nationals, let alone US government conspirators. There were 170 Australians in Canberra directly involved, for instance.
In either case, they had to be receiving radio signals which corresponded to spacecraft going to, orbiting, at and coming from, the moon. The signals would have had to be coming from the right part of the sky for a lunar mission, and to incorporate the correct Doppler shifts and delays for such a trajectory. The antenna pointing angles would have had to be good to within a fraction of a degree because of the narrow beamwidth (0.3 deg) at the frequency used (2.3GHz). If any of these parameters had been incorrect it would have been obvious to the tracking operators, as well as the many personnel at Houston receiving and analysing the data
It's hard even today to try to visualise how this could be done but let's try. You would have to put an unmanned transmitting spacecraft on the right trajectory – there is no way of simulating a radio signal of something doing a lunar mission other than an actual transmitter on a spacecraft – NO WAY.
This signal had to be modulated in some way with voice, telemetry and TV. It could have been done by transmitting from the earth and relaying from the hoax spacecraft, but with great difficulty. There would have had to have been at least three ground stations to do the surreptitious transmitting, at least two outside the US, to provide communications 24hr per day. And the faked voice, telemetry and TV would have had to have been transmitted from the source (Area 51?) out to these stations without anybody in the world being aware of it. Even if remotely possible within the US, highly unlikely overseas. All of this relaying would have been doubling the expected delays – again obvious to the operators.
And the whole system would have to be interactive so that the origin of the signals on earth would respond to commands and voice sent from the (genuine) ground stations and relayed via the fake spacecraft (more than one) to the hoax ground stations – wherever they were – and again by some means back to Area 51.
It should be obvious, then, that a hoax is highly unlikely, if not impossible, purely from the point of view of Tracking and Communications, let alone any others. There are many non-US nationals (aliens?!) still around who are proud to have been part of one of (US) man's greatest achievements, and take the hoax assertions as a stupid affront.
Mike Dinn – Canberra – November 2002
(One of those)
