Van Allen's "Nonsense" Quote

[JayUtah]

Dan O'Bannon, the writer, decided he might be more successful with a serious version of the film, which became the Alien franchise.

I'm surprised Van Allen made a comment at all about hoax theories.  Normally that sort of popular nonsense flies far below the radar of prominent scientists.  But having run across the quote on the original forum, I decided it was both important enough and intellectually responsible to confirm it directly with him.

[sts60]

...BryanPR, "Benson, Arizona" WTF?? LOL.

Hey, I like Benson.  Little town tucked away off of I-10 not far east of Tucson. 

[AstroBrant]

...BryanPR, "Benson, Arizona" WTF?? LOL.

Hey, I like Benson.  Little town tucked away off of I-10 not far east of Tucson.

In my trip around the country I was going to go down that way to visit my niece, but they were calling for 110 degree weather for about 5 days. (The first week of May). It was going to be 100+ even up toward the north of NM. So I made a right turn at Albuquerque and headed to Salida, Colorado. Glad I did...the mountains were breathtaking.

Guess what happened my second night there.

It snowed!

(Sorry Jay, I just didn't make it to your part of Utah. If I had, I surely would have tried to meet up with you.)

[ka9q]

So I made a right turn at Albuquerque...

Ah yes. The right turn at Alba-kerky...

[onebigmonkey]

Kind of on-topic:

The Van Allen Belt dosimeters built into the CSM hull - were they entirely automatic or did they require any crew intervention?

I know there are brief summaries in the mission reports, but are the data publicly available?

Usual need for information - to shut up a loon.

[beedarko]

So I made a right turn at Albuquerque...

Ah yes. The right turn at Alba-kerky...

Let's hope he avoided the Slauson Cutoff.

[Allan F]

Kind of on-topic:

The Van Allen Belt dosimeters built into the CSM hull - were they entirely automatic or did they require any crew intervention?

I know there are brief summaries in the mission reports, but are the data publicly available?

Usual need for information - to shut up a loon.

Won't work - it's from NASA so it's faked. That'll be their counter-argument.

[Luckmeister]

So I made a right turn at Albuquerque...

Ah yes. The right turn at Alba-kerky...

Let's hope he avoided the Slauson Cutoff.

Or he'll have to cut off his Slauson....... Yeah. I'm old. 

[raven]

Kind of on-topic:

The Van Allen Belt dosimeters built into the CSM hull - were they entirely automatic or did they require any crew intervention?

I know there are brief summaries in the mission reports, but are the data publicly available?

Usual need for information - to shut up a loon.

Won't work - it's from NASA so it's faked. That'll be their counter-argument.

There's always the results from Zond 5 and 7.

[onebigmonkey]

Kind of on-topic:

The Van Allen Belt dosimeters built into the CSM hull - were they entirely automatic or did they require any crew intervention?

I know there are brief summaries in the mission reports, but are the data publicly available?

Usual need for information - to shut up a loon.

Won't work - it's from NASA so it's faked. That'll be their counter-argument.

There's always the results from Zond 5 and 7.

Good stuff, I'll save that.

However this particular troll is insisting that the crew needed to know how to work the VAB dosimeter, otherwise they would die, so more info on that specific device would help give him something else to ignore.

[beedarko]

Or he'll have to cut off his Slauson....... Yeah. I'm old. 

Nice. I was hoping I wasn't the only relic here.   

[gillianren]

However this particular troll is insisting that the crew needed to know how to work the VAB dosimeter, otherwise they would die, so more info on that specific device would help give him something else to ignore.

That doesn't even make sense.  As long as they didn't get the lethal dose, why would it matter if they knew how much they actually did get?

[ka9q]

The Van Allen Belt dosimeters built into the CSM hull - were they entirely automatic or did they require any crew intervention?

Were there dosimeters in the CSM hull? I know about the dosimeters the crews carried in their pockets. They read them down to the earth every day. Sample exchange, from Apollo 11:

036:05:38 Aldrin: Roger. Are you ready to copy some numbers on the status report, et cetera?

036:05:42 Duke: Roger. Go ahead. Over. [Pause.]

036:05:49 Aldrin: Okay. Radiation CDR, 11005; CMP, 10006; LMP, 09007. Medication negative. And I got some battery and RCS numbers for you.

No, the three crewmembers didn't receive widely different exposures. The three dosimeters were set to different starting values to help reduce the chance of a mixup between them. Extra credit for figuring out what those starting values were.

[Allan F]

0, 1 and 2?

edit: The first two digits were also an indication of whose dosimeter it was.

[Sus_pilot]

Or he'll have to cut off his Slauson....... Yeah. I'm old. 

Nice. I was hoping I wasn't the only relic here.   

And what movie is Art Fern showing today?

(You ain't the only one!)