Apollo 13

[smartcooky]

I agree with Andromeda, a very nice diagram indeed.

I do have a question and an observation though.

Question:
Are the VARB's not distorted somewhat by the solar wind?

Observation:
A somewhat large penny dropped when I saw that drawing. I had always visualised the VARBs as a doughnut shape, at right angles to the Earth's axis, but in seeing this diagram it has dawned on me that the doughnut shape is in fact at right angles to the Earth's magnetic axis. I had always suspected that they had to take some account of the Moon's orbital inclination being 5.5° off the Earth's equatorial plane in order to calculate the "window" for each mission, but the fact that the magnetic pole (in the 1960's) was about 15° away from the Earth's axis, means that the doughnut is also inclined, and that means,  depending on the position of the Moon in its orbit, that the "amount" of the VARB between the Earth and the Moon along a given flight path would vary from one day to the next. This might also have to be taken into account when planning the mission window. 

[Zakalwe]

I'll check back in one more time but you guys are not doing well.

Stop blustering.
Have you read the documents that you have been referred to?

[beedarko]

This guy will spend how ever many hours writing insults

Where did he insult you?  I can't find an example.

but can't come up with a mention of how they avoided the Belts, etc etc. Tiresome.

Several sources and examples were already provided.  What is your reason for ignoring them?

[Zakalwe]

Start the Ban clock.....

[smartcooky]

And more petard hoisting from the paper from 1969, which, brilliantly, suggests that the boys 'transit the belts rapidly' as a solution. Well, duhhh:

'When you find yourself in a hail of bullets: run!!!!'

You mistakenly continue to equate transiting the van Allen belts with running through "hail of bullets" (despite being shown reference after reference after reference that your understanding is wrong).

Using your metaphor, passing quickly through the van Allen belts to minimise radiation exposure is more like hurrying through light drizzle, to get from the front door of your house to the car parked in the driveway, so that you don't get too wet!!

[raven]

You know, with all his questions about how they avoided the belts, I am staring to wonder if our friend here thinks that you can only travel in a straight line in space, forgetting (or simply not knowing) how gravity can curve a trajectory.

[Chew]

This guy will spend how ever many hours writing insults but can't come up with a mention of how they avoided the Belts, etc etc. Tiresome.

And more petard hoisting from the paper from 1969, which, brilliantly, suggests that the boys 'transit the belts rapidly' as a solution. Well, duhhh:

'When you find yourself in a hail of bullets: run!!!!'

The manta in radiation protection is "Time, Distance, Shielding". Given your poor grasp of everything else that others have patiently taken the time to spoon feed you, it looks like I will have to hold your hand and walk you through the aspect of "time" in radiation protection. The dose received from a radiation source is dependent upon the time a person is exposed to it. If a radiation source would give a dose of 1 sievert in 1 hour and a person were exposed to the source for 1 hour, they would receive a dose of 1 sievert. If they spent 20 minutes there they would receive a dose of one third of a sievert. Complicated, isn't it? Comparing it to the binary situation of being hit or not hit by a bullet is as stupid as your Mount Everest analogy.

Still not a word about a 'Van Allen launch window.' (Yes, my phraseology.)

Bwahahaha! Yeah, no kidding it's your own phraseology! It speaks volumes about your complete ignorance of the subject.

[Ranb]

The manta in radiation protection is "Time, Distance, Shielding"

There is no way allancw is going to understand this if he can't wrap his ahead about the fact that he appears to not know how much radiation there is to be protected from or avoid.

[sts60]

 

...And more petard hoisting from the paper from 1969, which, brilliantly, suggests that the boys 'transit the belts rapidly' as a solution. Well, duhhh:

Speaking as a practicing space engineer with more than two decades in the field, a space physics degree, and a hazmat ops certification, I don't have a problem with it, because:
1. The paper noted that the problem was more complex, and the above was only part of the solution.
2. "Time-distance-shielding" applies here, and a rapid transit of the region is a major part of the solution to minimizing exposure to the trapped particle radiation.
 
I'm afraid your statement is nothing more than an appeal to ridicule, unless you have something more specific to say about the problem. 
 

'When you find yourself in a hail of bullets: run!!!!'

A lot of guys who made it off Omaha Beach thought that was pretty good advice.  However, the analogy isn't very much use for Earth departure planning.
 

Still not a word about a 'Van Allen launch window.' (Yes, my phraseology.)

Agreed, that's your phrasing.  We don't use that in the space business.
 

I'll check back in one more time but you guys are not doing well.

Allan, you guaranteed we could not provide examples of references to trajectory planning to minimize exposure to Van Allen Belt radiation.  I and others provided exactly that.
 
At this point, you have two choices:
1. You can refuse to acknowledge the evidence explicitly refuting your claim, and use appeals to ridicule and meaningless phrases (e.g., "Van Allen launch window") to avoid addressing the issue, or
2. You can acknowledge that just such planning was done, and either accept or challenge the adequacy of such planning.  Either way in this case (#2), you will have learned something.
 
There's a great deal to learn about Apollo in particular and space flight in general, and people here who are willing to share their knowledge of these subjects with you.  Are you in? 

[frenat]

I thought i told you fellows my name so you could check my cv via amazon: allan weisbecker.

An author that doesn't capitalize the first letters in his own name?

Anyway, before you further insult my character, maybe read the 350 plus reader reviews for my books on Amazon, which average 4.7 stars. Try to find another author with that many reviews and that average. Let me know when you find one.

Hugh Howey, 6,543 reviews just for his best known book (Wool) and averaging 4.7 out of 5.  What is that supposed to prove about your ignorance of Apollo and spaceflight?

[ka9q]

Still not a word about a 'Van Allen launch window.' (Yes, my phraseology.)

That's because there isn't one.

The VABs are formed by the earth's magnetic field capturing charged particles from the sun. The magnetic poles do slowly wander around the earth, but to a first approximation they're fixed to it. That means the VABs are also fixed to the rotating earth so there's no "window" to be had. What matters is the trajectory you fly over the earth's surface, and that was nearly the same for all the Apollo lunar missions. They all launched nearly eastward from KSC into low altitude parking orbits and then fired the upper stage a second time to go to the moon (TLI). Except for Apollo 17, which performed TLI over the Atlantic, the lunar missions all did TLI over the Pacific so they flew the same trajectory through the VABs regardless of the time of day.

[frenat]

By the way, that Bean was unfamiliar with the Van Allen belt IS incredible, whether he could 'feel' it (the radiation) or not.

Why?  They can't be seen, felt, heard, smelled, or tasted.  The trajectory was planned to go around the majority of them.  It wasn't like he had a need to grab the controls and fly Buck Rogers style weaving through them.

 

That I get insulted for pointing that out also goes to motives here.

Only yours.

Speaking of which, since you seem to believe that they somehow 'avoided' the belts, possibly you could come up with a contemporaneous account of how they planned the launch to avoid the worst of the radiation. That would go a long way to shutting me up about the matter.

[frenat]

Everyone seems to agree that the Van Allen Belts were potentially dangerous to the astronauts. Therefore, all the Apollo missions must have taken this into account, i.e., the launches timed and the flight trajectories carefully plotted so the astronauts would not be 'dosed.'

I'll assume this is a given, from the above posts.

Therefore there surely are CONTEMPORANEOUS reports/accounts/papers/studies/documents proving this, or at least MENTIONING IT. Just to be sure you understand: when I say 'contemporaneous' I mean dated from the time of the missions, not some Youtube video or verbal claim from the 21st century.

I am saying, actually guaranteeing, that none of you can come up with the above, and for this reason: The Apollo missions were hoaxes.

So that's my 'proof': You cannot produce the stated evidence, which you surely could produce if the missions were done with the Van Allen Belt taken as a serious risk factor. (A risk factor that at least one of the astronauts was unaware of, i.e., Allan Bean.)

Translation: I haven't done any research on my own so I wouldn't know of the many dry technical reports covering this many of which are not on the internet so I'm claiming victory!

[Noldi400]

I think our visitor's phrase from that "How The World Works" link:

"dilettante-ism at its most annoying"

is very apropos of his venture here.

Also, O visitor, if you would care to put that "EMS friend" in touch with me, I'll gladly attempt to straighten him out on hypothermia effects in a confined, low pressure, low humidity, microgravity, almost completely still-air environment, based on 30 years experience in EMS and Nursing.  Living through it for a few days would suck, but is quite survivable.

[gillianren]

Hugh Howey, 6,543 reviews just for his best known book (Wool) and averaging 4.7 out of 5.  What is that supposed to prove about your ignorance of Apollo and spaceflight?

There are a few authors I've considered looking up, but I don't care enough.  Especially given how meaningless the information is.