According to popular belief man landed on the moon in 1969. Setting aside various problems with the official version of events let me ask a simple, scientific question. Given the state of scientific knowledge in 1969 (which knew little of the huge effect of radiation that exists within the Van Allen belt circling the earth) how does one explain the fact that (1) when questioned the astronauts said they barely noticed passing throught it and (2) no provision whatsoever was made to protect the astronauts from the deadly concentrations of radiation they would have met if they really did travel to the moon. Let us have some real answers this time and not just fudge on this issue. The facts simply do not suggest that these astronauts would have survived travelling through this huge and deadly belt of radiation.
2006-09-04 17:21:25 · 11 answers · asked by democracynow 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
They flew trhough the belt for such a short time that it was OK.
http://radbelts.gsfc.nasa.gov/outreach/RadNews.html
2006-09-04 17:27:51 · answer #1 · answered by Bob 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Two points:
1) Van Allen Belt is a Torus (doughnut) not a sphere, and a trajectory taking you over either of Earth's magnetic poles will minimise your exposure.
2) James Van Allen himself dismissed the idea that it would kill astronauts who PASSED THROUGH the belt.
A satellite parked in a geostationary orbit in the Belt, protected by 3mm of aluminium (the Apollo spamcans had more than that, but...) would receive 25 sieverts of radiation in a year. Okay, scary stuff.
But that works out at 0.06 sieverts per DAY - which is the lowest exposure amount the nuclear industry thinks MIGHT trigger cancer.
Assuming astronauts passed through in two hours, they would receive a mere 0.005 sieverts of radiation - which is about the normal level of background exposure for UK residents per year.
So while the Van Allen Belt is not a place you want to hang around... so long as you get through it in a couple of hours, you're not gonna go down like Spock.
Incidentally, if the USA had NOT landed on the moon... I'm pretty sure the CCCP would have wanted to tell the world about it. They had equally powerful tracking radar and cameras trained on the Apollo launches - if they'd wanted to disprove the landings, they could have come up with devastating data the world scientific community could not have ignored.
2006-09-04 20:32:43 · answer #2 · answered by DreamWeaver 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
"...The facts simply do not suggest that these astronauts would have survived travelling through this huge and deadly belt of radiation..."
The tone of your 'question' strongly implies that you've already made up your mind, and that no matter what real scientific facts are presented you're not going to alter your thinking. Along with all the other good, solid answers already posted, here's some more -----
An unprotected man would indeed get a lethal dose of radiation, if he stayed there long enough. Actually, the spaceship traveled through the belts pretty quickly, getting past them in an hour or so. There simply wasn't enough time to get a lethal dose, and, as a matter of fact, the metal hull of the spaceship did indeed block most of the radiation.
2006-09-04 17:45:22 · answer #3 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
"Proponents of the Apollo Moon Landing Hoax have argued that space travel to the moon is impossible because the Van Allen radiation would kill or incapacitate an astronaut who made the trip. Van Allen himself, now deceased (August 9, 2006), dismissed these ideas. In practice, Apollo astronauts who travelled to the moon spent very little time in the belts and received a harmless dose. [6]. Nevertheless NASA deliberately timed Apollo launches, and used lunar transfer orbits that only skirted the edge of the belt over the equator to minimise the radiation. Astronauts who visited the moon probably have a slightly higher risk of cancer during their lifetimes, but still remain unlikely to become ill because of it."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_Belt
2006-09-04 17:27:14 · answer #4 · answered by Michael M 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Precautions were taken and besides they passed through them quickly- it may have affected their long-term health but nothing too drastic.
"Proponents of the Apollo Moon Landing Hoax have argued that space travel to the moon is impossible because the Van Allen radiation would kill or incapacitate an astronaut who made the trip. Van Allen himself, now deceased (August 9, 2006), dismissed these ideas. In practice, Apollo astronauts who travelled to the moon spent very little time in the belts and received a harmless dose. [6]. Nevertheless NASA deliberately timed Apollo launches, and used lunar transfer orbits that only skirted the edge of the belt over the equator to minimise the radiation. Astronauts who visited the moon probably have a slightly higher risk of cancer during their lifetimes, but still remain unlikely to become ill because of it." - Wikipedia
2006-09-04 17:26:45 · answer #5 · answered by iMi 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
the Van Allen Belts are not belts of radiation, actually they protect us from an amount of solar radiation, the risk is not in being in the belts but in travelling beyond them. Why would the astronauts notice passing through them? they arent signposted or a different colour or anything, they dont appear different to other parts of space, they're parts of the Earths magnetic field.
provision was made to protect the astronauts, their space craft was made of metal and even this relatively thin layer was enough to drastically reduce the amount of radiation they were exposed to.
As someone mentioned earlier, the tone of your question does imply that you have already made your mind up on this subject and i wonder if anyone will be able to convince you otherwise.
2006-09-04 21:31:51 · answer #6 · answered by jen_82_m 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Van Allen belts have are not huge and deadly belts of radiation. They are lines of magnetic flux rateated by the earth that infast serve to provide protection from a limited amount of radeation from the solar wind. You will see in most depictions that is is tear drop shaped with dimples at the north and south poles that is why the northers lights occur more often at these latatudes. because of the reduced effect of the belts. They are tear drop shaped from the bow wave shock produced by the solar wind. And yes radiation protection was built into all apollo space craft.
2006-09-04 17:32:49 · answer #7 · answered by maintman73 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As others have said, they travelled through quickly. One proposal that was made though prior to the Apollo missions was to have the craft(s) take the polar route via a pole-to-pole path which following Earths magnetic poles would have avoided the Van Allen Belts altogether. But this would have been a more difficult route to navigate as far as getting to the moon goes, and would have required more fuel..
2006-09-04 20:56:43 · answer #8 · answered by Search first before you ask it 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One would assume that the ISS and the Shuttle program, were for relatively long term scientific research and development. programs for all world sciences. It was designed to be somewhat more economical than going further out, since it was designed for as many missions as possible a year.
The shuttle was designed as a pickup truck for near Earth orbit. The ISS can be supplied with experiments back and forth and rations more regularly, and also a rescue could be more effective as we could get a shuttle there quicker being closer.
2015-06-20 09:28:03 · answer #9 · answered by robert d 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Let us have some real answers this time and not just fudge on this issue. "
Now you have some real answers - commence fudging the issue!!!
2006-09-07 03:52:00 · answer #10 · answered by blearyboy 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋