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Old 21-November-2004, 02:51 AM
Daryl71 Daryl71 is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 245
Default More engineering buffoonery

#-o #-o #-o
I'm browsing through a copy of Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon, by Dr. David Reynolds, that I borrowed from the library. I have no idea why this book is so acclaimed; if one were to underline the factual errors, it would look like a bloodbath. But hold on a minute as I narrow my derision...
Page 119, describing the LM:
The LM consisted of a cockpit "head" and a lower landing stage with legs and the main engine. The landing stage would be left on the Moon, serving as a launch pad for the LM's upper half. The detachable cockpit stage held the astronauts and a smaller engine that would boost them back up into orbit for a rendeavous with their crewmate circling in the Command Module...
A diagram on the next page makes reference to a "ship-to-ship VHS radio antenna", a "liftoff engine", "LM garage attachment point", and a "spacewalk handrail". The diagram even divvies the spacecraft into a "cockpit stage" and a "landing stage"!
Okay, I'm all for easing people into the more advanced concepts of Apollo with launching a technobabble barrage. But reading these passages made me feel as if I'd been talked down to, like the reader isn't quite "ready" to assimilate even the most basic design concepts. At another point, the author states that Apollo 1 contained "five times more oxygen then the outside air". This is supposed to be a shocking statement, but all Apollo missions used pure oxygen environments.
Sorry for mouthing off, but it's no wonder the hoax theories are alive and well when grossly inaccurate information is so readily accepted.
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