Why I suspect Apollo was a hoax.

[Luke Pemberton]

Adam said that the lead balloon episode was his all-time favorite.

You're showing off now

[mako88sb]

A couple years after the original airing of that episode, the Mythbusters did a special in which they revisited some of their prior myths.  Adam said that the lead balloon episode was his all-time favorite.

Well, I got a bone to pick with you about that episode. My oldest daughter and I were watching it and I told her that it wouldn't work. Of course, we know the results and my daughter hasn't let me forget it. She can be quite merciless sometimes. Grrr!

[bknight]

I predict that will rise like a 2m lead balloon.

The Mythbusters got that to happen.

I actually meant a 2 m thick balloon,if that is what they did.
E2a Congratulations on suggesting it in the first place.

[Cat Not Included]

Neil, let me ask you a two-part hypothetical question. Let us say, for some reason, NASA decided to arrange a special demonstration - just for you and some other observers - just like you request to show off the spacesuit working in a vacuum chamber.

Would this actually convince you?

If so, WHY would it actually convince you? You've posited some insanely complicated acts of deceit on behalf of NASA. According to you, they've somehow gotten an inflatable object into orbit around the planet at a speed of over 17,000 miles per hour.
Do you have the experience and knowledge to positively identify an in-use vacuum chamber? Could you tell if it was being faked?
Magicians manage to convince live audiences of amazing feats of illusion. David Copperfield arranged an illusion that tricked his audience into thinking he'd made the Statue of Liberty vanish. Do you really think they couldn't manage something as simple as a fake vacuum chamber?

So again, why would this specific demonstration convince you? It is no less "fakeable" than all the other evidence that is available.

It would have to be fakeable to more than just me. I expect at least two other independent witnesses on hand. I also expect to be allowed to hook up our own pirani and hot cathode ionization gauges. I'm confident that my level of experience with vacuum systems is sufficient. Personally, I doubt they'll be able to get anywhere near orbital vacuum of ~1e-6 Torr if the sublimator works as they allege. But maybe they have some huge vacuum pumps to compensate for the sublimator sublimating.

So...just to be clear. You claim is that almost the entire space programs of multiple countries are a hoax. The most elaborate hoax ever in human history. Which has successfully fooled millions of people, including thousands of direct observers. Which has super-secret special effects technology decades ahead of their time and can spend millions of dollars on developing and launching completely non-functional space station duplicates.

But they couldn't manage to fool three people in an indoor demonstration?

[Zakalwe]

But they couldn't manage to fool three people in an indoor demonstration?

Or just make them disappear?

Remember, NASA can do ANYTHING, except land men on the Moon and return them safely.

[mako88sb]

But they couldn't manage to fool three people in an indoor demonstration?

This has been pointed out numerous times to him over at the Michio Kaku video he frequents. Plus I've told him just as many times there's no way NASA would ever start jumping through hoops to satisfy one person since it would lead to all kinds of demands by the ignorant to demo what they can't figure out. His continued persistence is totally irrational. Especially after viewing his resume that shows he has the education to know there's no reason at all that the PLSS couldn't work as shown.

[Bob B.]

I actually meant a 2 m thick balloon,if that is what they did.

They made it out of a thin lead foil.  Adam devised a pretty neat way of arranging the sheets in such a way that it could be constructed with everything laid out flat on the floor.  When it was inflated, the sheets unfolded in just the right way to make nice balloon.  The biggest problem they had was that the foil was so soft that it would easily tear.  They had to keep patching it while it was inflating.  Nonetheless, it worked.

I suggested the use of lead foil, but my idea was to construct it like a dirigible with a lightweight wire frame.  The calculations showed that it definitely would have enough buoyancy to work.  In fact, the Mythbusters design has so buoyant that they got it to rise used a mixing of helium and air.  My calculations were based on pure helium.

[dwight]

Neil.

Just buy or rent the unit from the manufacturer and demonstrate how it doesnt work.

Because your bs ranting is about as gratifying as a 1khz tone at 150dB. Time is money.

[Jason Thompson]

The lead balloon was nothing short of amazing. Loved that episode. Although it (and others) did contribute to the frivolous use of an element we are slowly but surely depleting. As Dara OBriain put it in his latest tour, no other species has punched a hole in the periodic table by taking an entire element and hoofing it off into space!

But to summarise this dscussion, everything about anything about space is fake, photos that were on the internet and published elsewhere even before 2010 were only released because he agitated for them in 2010, and the only way to prove it all is true is for NASA to do something no organisation in its right mind would do and let a man with a dubious police record into their facilities and fiddle around with their equipment. Right....

[Dr_Orpheus]

Is it my imagination, or do an increasing number of HBs believe that all manned (and sometimes even all unmanned) space flights are fake?

[bknight]

I actually meant a 2 m thick balloon,if that is what they did.

They made it out of a thin lead foil.  Adam devised a pretty neat way of arranging the sheets in such a way that it could be constructed with everything laid out flat on the floor.  When it was inflated, the sheets unfolded in just the right way to make nice balloon.  The biggest problem they had was that the foil was so soft that it would easily tear.  They had to keep patching it while it was inflating.  Nonetheless, it worked.

I suggested the use of lead foil, but my idea was to construct it like a dirigible with a lightweight wire frame.  The calculations showed that it definitely would have enough buoyancy to work.  In fact, the Mythbusters design has so buoyant that they got it to rise used a mixing of helium and air.  My calculations were based on pure helium.

I was aiming that comment to the blunder down under.   With his "complete " understanding of radiation.

[mako88sb]

But to summarise this dscussion, everything about anything about space is fake, photos that were on the internet and published elsewhere even before 2010 were only released because he agitated for them in 2010, and the only way to prove it all is true is for NASA to do something no organisation in its right mind would do and let a man with a dubious police record into their facilities and fiddle around with their equipment. Right....

The fact that he can't seem to recognize how unreasonable his demand is really begs the question of just how mentally stable is he? For someone to even consider making a bomb threat back in 2010 raises all kinds of concerns about what he could possibly do in the future when all his efforts to uncover his version of the truth appear to Neil to be plots to stonewall him.

[bknight]

Please list any your relevant qualifications.

Just in case you missed the question in all the posts.

Here's his resume from when he was running for governor back in 2002:

http://web.archive.org/web/20031224132630/www.oceanchinampa.com/BakerResume.pdf

Given that his materials engineering degree is valid, it seems odd that he does not understand the sublimation chacterists of the Apollo PLSS. With all the "Engineering" jobs held, it seems to me that he should be able to understand the chacterists.   Curious indeed.
EDIT: Change engineering degree to match his resume.

[mako88sb]

Please list any your relevant qualifications.

Just in case you missed the question in all the posts.

Here's his resume from when he was running for governor back in 2002:

http://web.archive.org/web/20031224132630/www.oceanchinampa.com/BakerResume.pdf

Given that his materials engineering degree is valid, it seems odd that he does not understand the sublimation chacterists of the Apollo PLSS. With all the "Engineering" jobs held, it seems to me that he should be able to understand the chacterists.   Curious indeed.
EDIT: Change engineering degree to match his resume.

I'm not sure if you seen his bid for the Governor of California but his plan for everybody is to live on floating plastic Islands around the equator. When asked about waves, his response:

 "Waves are a wind driven phenomenon. If we block the wind or cover most of the surface of the ocean where we live with islands to prevent exposure to wind, no waves will be generated."

He response trivializes something like that as if it's a simple solution yet he can't get his head around something like this? Kind of disturbing actually.

[Luke Pemberton]

Because your bs ranting is about as gratifying as a 1khz tone at 150dB. Time is money.

I have a CD that plays that tone for 10 hours continuously, as it is far more interesting and soothing than watching a Blunder video.

'Obviously...'