Thought question: "So, does 'myth' matter anymore?"

Originally Posted by sundialsvcs Very likely it was in no one's best interests to "call them out.

C'mon sundialsvcs, pull the other one! Chairman Mao in China, Brezhnev in the USSR? Either of those guys would have absolutely loved to spoil the party for the Excited States under Nixon, if they were claiming credit falsely. They would have loved to trumpet the falsehood to their respective countries and warn them how they could 'never trust the west.' On the balance of probabilities, the moon landings happened.

They made enough fun of the US a few years later over Watergate, although I believe Nixon was told how their system could handle such problems. They did, too. [Tienamen Square].

My lasting memories of that was Time magazine (my Dad had a subscription):

1. A cartoon depicting someone lonely and dejected soldier retreating on horseback at dusk in a Napoleon-type hat & cloak, with the 'Nixon' caricature nose sticking out from under the hat. The place he was retreating from was called "Waterloogate."
2. The last Press photo I saw of Nixon before he resigned was of him addressing an auditorium, and the camera was right of stage, so you saw Nixon on the extreme left, the whole crowd, and this massive banner on two poles being held accross the back. It read "Impeach the <expletive deleted.>"

Interesting article on where Myth Meets Science with special focus on Flood Myths


https://bigthink.com/high-culture/flood-myth-origin/

I've said it before and I'll say it one more time: r-a-d-i-a-t-i-o-n. Once you get beyond the Earth's magnetosphere, you are fully exposed to the blasts from El Sol ... blasts powerful enough to cause auroras on Neptune. These blasts sometimes take out geostationary satellites which are hardened against it. There is nothing in a cloth space suit, nor in a thin metal spacecraft (let alone the fragile "lunar lander") which will allow a carbon-based life form to survive that exposure. The extent of our space exploration is necessarily limited to "low earth orbit." And it will continue to be confined there until we find a way to solve the radiation problem. The exposed surface of the Moon is a very radioactive place.

As I've also said, Apollo is now an impediment to future space exploration. If you insist that "you already did it, and it was easy," you are refusing to do the research that might one day enable us to actually do it. And we certainly could be sending robotic probes up there, as we have successfully done with other planets. It's the closest thing to us but we're not regularly exploring it, "because Apollo." We should be gathering lots of those petrified-wood "moon rocks ..."

sundialsvcs radiation from our Sun, the constant average, is NOT sufficient to kill in exposures over a few days or even weeks. Much of what is at all dangerous can be blocked by metal coated mylar. Layering, even with just normal water, is also extremely effective. Consider that our atmosphere and magnetosphere block even bursts routinely. You really need to do some research from actually scientific sources instead of conspiracy theorists to make a calculated decision.

I'm not at all suggesting you just "buy it" but at least weigh the damned evidence instead of regurgitating FUD... please. Also consider that these days the billions of investment dollars is no longer just "gubmint moneys". It is now many thousands of investors worldwide, staking their money, futures and reputations on the viability of their designs to get beyond the magnetosphere. Have you looked at any of the designs? If so, have you seen massive radiation shielding? I haven't because it is not required.

That said, staying permanently on the Moon as is planned as a result of Artemis in the US and several other ventures in other countries, does in fact require substabntial shielding because of the time involved with average radiation and against the somewhat rare bursts. Study of the 842 pounds of Moon rocks and soil have shown that the regolith is a highly effective shield so it is most likely that lava tubes and/or excavation and berm coverage will be employed at first.