Stopping in for a quick check this morning, and I see the debate still continued overnight (UK night). And I see we're returning to the issue of GCR and various "interpretations" of data.
However, picking up on a couple of points from a few pages back, relating to the VAB misunderstandings :
The torus you speak of is the VAB and it is centered on the geomagnetic equator which is 11.5 degrees above the equator. Try to remember that. it is useful knowledge.
Perhaps here is an indication of one of your misunderstandings Tim - "which is 11.5 degrees above the equator". No, the VAB (and geomagnetic equator) isn't aligned with latitude 11.5 degrees north, it's
inclined, i.e.
tilted, at an angle of 11.5 degrees relative to the equator. Which means that half of it is south of the equator, so a TLI trajectory which heads north of the equator in that southerly section of the VAB can easily avoid the higher radiation zones.
everything is a straight line in 2d. Perspectively challenged? It is not natural to think in anything but 3d and it simply may beyond you pay grade. I'm sorry.
"everything is a straight line in 2d"??
How can anyone come out with nonsense like this? Even one of your own links (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-lunar_injection) shows the orbits, equator etc. as curves in the helpful diagram at the top right.
Visualisation, and understanding graphical transformations, is certainly not above my pay grade. I may currently be working on spacecraft data handling systems, but I spent well over half my career in computer graphics, firstly in simulation (trains, boats, planes etc.), then in the games industry. From my perspective (!) it seems to be yourself that is lacking in the ability to comprehend the various 2D and 3D representations of the environment and trajectories...
[ BTW - it's better to take all the pop-sci articles, e.g. about colour perception, holographic universes etc. with a large pinch of salt. They tend to over-simplify, omit important details, and very often get things hilariously wrong. ]