Rene-NASA-Mooned-America

No Business Like Showbiz / Chap. 13 p. 115
And real problems did exist — in such copious numbers that nothing had to be invented.
In December 1966 a report made by Joe Shea noted, "At least 20,000 failures of all kinds
had been logged, he said, more than two hundred of them in the environmental control
system." 15
In Journey To Tranquility the authors point out, "In short, the two main engines of the
lunar module had to be infallible. Yet in January 1968 the ascent engine in particular was
proving to be only too prone to error." 16
People who go adventuring in real life, unless they are suicidal, try to whittle down the
odds against them by proper planning and provisioning. In a showbiz production, the excitement
is frequently heightened by the dumbness of hero or heroine . For instance, our hero
is shoved around by goons. Smack! Smack! Smack! They deliver the message from Mr. Big.
Our hero lives; wakes up in a hospital to find either that his wife was raped and little dog
killed, or vice versa.
Does he take out the top gangster that sicced the goons on him Not quite! Throughout
the rest of the production, he kills the underling goons five at a time, but never once does he
take out Mr. Big. Only in the last scene, does our hero whup Mr. Big's ass and sends him off
to jail with a black eye, instead of the grave where any normal man would have put him.
Everybody in the audience over the age of twelve knows that Mr. Big will be out of jail on
bond in a matter of hours. I guess that's show biz.
In the NASA serials Mr. Big was space and if NASA failed to maintain sufficient public
interest, Congress would cut a good portion of all those beautiful bucks. To maintain interest
they needed to create situations that promised danger and harrowing escapes. Never mind the
fact that you will soon learn that not one manned mission dared go beyond the safety of our
Van Allen radiation shield.
For example, on the Apollo 11 mission the LEM's computer gave out a "busy signal" in
its final descent to the lunar surface. Then they had the added excitement of missing their
planned landing area so much that NASA was in effect screaming, "Car 54 where are you!"
Or close enough to it.
Then there was the great evacuation flap when Armstrong and Aldrin took four hours to
evacuate once they were on the Moon. Practicing quick evacuations here on Earth take some
time, but 4 hours is ridiculous. They complained that too much gas got in the way. But
finally, because they had "The Right Stuff" they were able to get rid of the gas and go about
their real job, bopping around the Moon mouthing platitudes. I speak here of the air in the
LEM, naturally.
Harry Hurt tells us, "Armstrong and Aldrin expected their EVA (walk on the Moon)
preparations to take about two hours, but they ended up taking twice that long because the
exhaust gases from the backpacks compounded the difficulty of depressurizing the cabin of
the lunar module." 17 But please remember what you read about the suit's air conditioning not
being able to work once they entered the LEM.
Well, Buzz, wasn't the Command Capsule a mansion in comparison to the LEM's tiny
cabin If it took you 4 hours to vent the LEM in space because of your exhalations, how
NASA MOONED AMERICA! / Rene