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The Reality of Apollo / Re: Canberra Road Trip
« Last post by TimberWolfAu on January 12, 2026, 08:54:25 PM »
If you are passing through Nowra and would like a tour of the Fleet Air Arm Museum...

So very tempting but too far out of my way I'm afraid. I really only have a single day to make this trip (aligning with other people as the better half doesn't want me taking the trip on my own), and I'm already looking at a round trip of 9 hours.
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The Reality of Apollo / Re: Canberra Road Trip
« Last post by Obviousman on January 12, 2026, 04:20:43 PM »
If you are passing through Nowra and would like a tour of the Fleet Air Arm Museum, please let me know. No space-related items that I recall but heaps of aviation! (Something from Paul Scully-Power maybe? He has a strong association with the FAA & Navy)
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The Reality of Apollo / Re: Canberra Road Trip
« Last post by Peter B on January 12, 2026, 03:52:12 PM »
Just quickly, does anyone know if the following sites still hold Apollo items/exhibits?

- National Museum of Australia (I think it still has the Apollo 17 'goodwill' sample, but I can't see on their website that confirmed this)
- GeoScience Australia (some mentions say they have rock samples, but their website doesn't mention them)
- Questacon, they had some items at one point, but I didn't see them last time I was there.

How embarrassing, that I'm a local and I have no firm idea about any of these. I've never seen the A17 goodwill sample when I've been to the NMA. I can check with a relative about GA. And I don't remember seeing anything relevant at Questacon.

Supposedly, the National Archives of Australia has the A11 goodwill sample, but I don't remember seeing that on display either. However, the NAA is only about a kilometre from Questacon, and well worth a visit in its own right.

Quote
And yes, I'll be calling them tomorrow to double check, but was wondering if there are any Canberra locals who might know? Figured, while I'm on holidays, I'll take a little road trip down to Canberra on Thursday. Planning on visiting the Deep Space Communication Centre and old Honeysuckle Creek site while I'm there. I'f you're all nice, I might post some photos too.

Tidbinbilla (CDSCC) has the best display of Apollo material (and of other space-related material) in the Canberra region. For example, they have on display the TV camera which was used on the Apollo-Soyuz mission. And I'm pretty sure in the past they had one of the  goodwill samples on display.

Honeysuckle is pretty and atmospheric.
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The Reality of Apollo / Canberra Road Trip
« Last post by TimberWolfAu on January 12, 2026, 07:08:37 AM »
Just quickly, does anyone know if the following sites still hold Apollo items/exhibits?

- National Museum of Australia (I think it still has the Apollo 17 'goodwill' sample, but I can't see on their website that confirmed this)
- GeoScience Australia (some mentions say they have rock samples, but their website doesn't mention them)
- Questacon, they had some items at one point, but I didn't see them last time I was there.

And yes, I'll be calling them tomorrow to double check, but was wondering if there are any Canberra locals who might know? Figured, while I'm on holidays, I'll take a little road trip down to Canberra on Thursday. Planning on visiting the Deep Space Communication Centre and old Honeysuckle Creek site while I'm there. I'f you're all nice, I might post some photos too.
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General Discussion / Re: The Trump Presidency
« Last post by LunarOrbit 🇨🇦 on January 11, 2026, 11:02:32 PM »
Considering all of the books, movies, and television shows that have been made over the last ~80 years warning us about people like Donald Trump, it is absolutely shameful that Americans voted for him anyway (for some of them three times!).

I don't think anyone needed to be prophetic to see this coming, just reasonably knowledgeable about history. I knew he would be a disaster over 10 years ago... but I had no idea he would betray allies and threaten to invade or annex them.

Where are the guardrails? Where are the checks and balances? Americans always bragged about their Constitution, but now it appears to be toothless because he violates it with zero consequences. What is the point of an oath of office if his Presidency isn't automatically ended the instant he breaks it?

The Republican Party is cancer to the entire world, and they should never be trusted with power again... assuming you survive long enough to extract it. Every trace of them must be irradiated out of the government's body at every level or it will just return.

Whether or not Trump is using some kind of "mad man" act (doubtful) or it is true madness (more likely) is kind of irrelevant. Either way, all he is doing is destroying the United States' global reputation for a long, long time. Nobody benefits from Trump's behaviour besides him and America's enemies, which only makes sense if that was the plan all along. But Russian collusion is just a hoax, right?  ::)

Rant over... for now.
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The Hoax Theory / Re: Watching the detectives...
« Last post by JayUtah on January 11, 2026, 12:11:22 PM »
Ironically, he may have stumbled on teh reaosn why the Apollo 11 telemetry tapes were re-used. VICAR used punch cards to process the data, and stored the output on magnetic tape. One tape could hold up to 99 images, depending on image size. I have no idea if the same tape was used, maybe someone else can clarify.

Telemetry tapes are not the same as computer tapes. Computer tapes are commodity items that you could buy by the case. There would be little need beyond convenience or nominal cost-savings to reuse those tapes. In contrast, telemetry tapes were made to operate at much higher tape speeds, higher tensions, and higher channel densities, so they were considerably more rare and expensive.
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The Hoax Theory / Re: Watching the detectives...
« Last post by bknight on January 11, 2026, 12:01:08 PM »
It seems to me that a lot of individuals with their hindsight have used the "If I ran the zoo" fallacy to dictate what the astronauts should have done.  They didn't check the mission was choreographed by NASA way before the missions launched.
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The Hoax Theory / Re: Watching the detectives...
« Last post by onebigmonkey on January 11, 2026, 06:14:38 AM »
My straydog's been busy, so busy I've had to reorganise his little section of my site before it becomes unmanageable..

I really can't tell if he's just trying to entrap his nemesis Jenny, but he genuinely seems to be claiming that a really poor Apollo 17 image from the LPI site shows Earth, mostly on the grounds that lots of different AI packages tell him it is. He's using that poor quality version to try and prove that Earth was pasted in to the image. It isn't Earth, but it does show an interesting aberration on a few photos that might be lens flare relating to a bright Earth shining off camera.

https://onebigmonkey.com/itburns/barking/ghof2/ghof2.html

In between that, and regurgitating other long debunked nonsense from Jack White, he's turned his attention to the mysterious stone circle in Surveyor crater visible in orbital images. His conclusion: if Apollo astronauts visited the crater, they would definitely have made note of it and gone to see it but by golly they just don't. The reality: it doesn't look like a circle from the ground:

https://onebigmonkey.com/itburns/barking/ring/ringpiece.html

Elsewhere in stupidland, Rasa has found JPL's VICAR software, developed in the 60s in order to store and manage images sent from far off worlds by, eg, Viking.

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19770021885/downloads/19770021885.pdf

He's implying that its existence shows 'they' had the ability to edit and manipulate Apollo images. Ironically, he may have stumbled on teh reaosn why the Apollo 11 telemetry tapes were re-used. VICAR used punch cards to process the data, and stored the output on magnetic tape. One tape could hold up to 99 images, depending on image size. I have no idea if the same tape was used, maybe someone else can clarify.

Even if he was correct he forgets, of course, that in order to process those images they had to exist in the first place.

He's also urging his followers to use the wayback machine to download vintage scans of Apollo images, so that they can be compared with modern scans and prove that the are fake. He can't wrap his head around the idea that images were re-scanned to improve the standard of electronic copy available, what with both scanning and image processing software improving a lot over the years. Guess it hasn't occurred to him to spend less on weed and more on buying actual vintage copies.
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General Discussion / Re: The Trump Presidency
« Last post by Obviousman on January 10, 2026, 06:43:00 PM »
Does anyone think how prophetic R.A. Heinlein was with his 'future history' & 'The Crazy Years'? Seems to me he was spot on & we are living through them.
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The Reality of Apollo / Re: Book Review/New Book!!
« Last post by TimberWolfAu on January 09, 2026, 06:15:23 AM »
Alas, there was nothing remotely new in the book from Andreas, although the turtle comment was amusing. Apparently he thought so highly of his book, that Armstrong's sons were fortunate to have sold some memorabilia BEFORE Andreas published his book, I guess he thought it would overturn the historical record.

And in sadder, news I guess, I got banned from 'Rasa's' group, again, a mere two days after my suspension lifted. Seems like the only way they could handle my responses was to remove my tongue. Ah well, guess I have time to work on the video script I've been putting off.
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