Rene-NASA-Mooned-America

The LEM's Problems / Chap. 11 p. 95
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To reduce the weight of the Apollo 11 capsule, NASA was reduced to scraping away
Mylar insulation. This play paid off because it enabled the intrepid, Neil Armstrong to jink
sideways a hundred yards and safely land on the last of his fuel. ""Thirty seconds," says
Houston. That's how much fuel they have left. Better get it on the ground, Neil."" 33
It seems logical to me, that if the Lem could have carried more fuel, NASA would have
enlarged the fuel tanks instead of scraping Mylar As shown by the following set of charts,
the Moon's gravity was as expected, or lower. It couldn't have been stronger because each
mission added more scientific equipment for the ALSEP science tests. The series of four
charts below labeled figure "a" through "d" respectively, can be found on page 2-2 in a 1973
NASA publication entitled APOLLO 17 Preliminary Science Report.
MISSION DATA ON WEIGHT, TIME OUTSIDE LEM AND DISTANCE TRAVERSED
Mission Traverse Time Spent Experimental Samples
Distance
Outside (hr) Equipment
Retrieved
(km) (mi)
(kg) (lb)
(kg) (lb)
Apollo 11 .2 .1 2:24 102 225 21 46
Apollo 12 2.0 1.2 7:29 166 366 34 75
Apollo 14 3.3 2.0 9:23 209 460 43 95
Apollo 15 27.9 17.3 18:33 550 1212 77 170
Apollo 16 27.0 16.7 20:12 563 1241 94 207
Apollo 17 35.0 21.7 22:05 514 1131 110 243
If we compare the weight carried by Apollo 11 to that of Apollo 16 we find an increase
in weight of 1016 pounds. 34 The chart says very clearly that the load from the extra
equipment represented only scientific experimental equipment for the ALSEP experiments.
But please note, I find no reason to consider the Rover as experimental equipment. The
Rover weighed 460 pounds 35 bringing the total increase in weight to 1476 pounds. 36
If an 80 pound back pack life support system (PLSS) lasted each astronaut for four
hours, as NASA's claims, then they had to carry either eight more units or re-fills on the
Apollo 16 mission. That is an additional load of up to 640 pounds, bringing us to a possible
maximum of 2116-pounds additional weight on the descending LEM. 37 I cannot begin to
guess how much additional "landing" fuel this much extra weight would require even if we
suppose that nothing else had to be added to extend the total time spent on the Moon. This
added mass is over a ton. All I can say is they must have scraped off an awful lot of Mylar!
Solar Radiation —
This may be the proper place to speak of the extra deadly radiation that is emitted by
solar flares. Collins seems to have fluffed off this problem when he wrote, "In similar
fashion, the Van Allen Radiation belts around the earth and the possibility of solar flares
require understanding and planning to avoid exposing the crew to an excessive dose of
radioactivity." 38
If NASA had so much understanding of solar flares why did they send Apollo 8, 10, 11,
and 12 out just when, as was known to any astronomer that the sunspot cycle with maxi-
NASA MOONED AMERICA! / Rene