After watching one of my Apollo DVDs (the Nova To the Moon), a friend asked why the CM is white during lift off, but shiny metal in space. We both figured it was some kind of covering, but I'd never heard of it specifically, aside from the abort tower cone on the very top.

It took me minutes to Google pictures, diagrams, and even old archived discussions here of the Boost Protective Cover. Question answered.

Why can't HBs do this? I mean, they obviously have the Internet :wink: .

Seriously, some do come here, aborting a fall to the Dark Side. But not enough, it seems. I mean, the information is here, on sites like this, and Clavius (thanks, Jay Utah!).

Cool, cjc36!

I remember wondering about the white CM and wanting to search, but then I sort of forgot. I also never noticed that while the CM is white at lauch (because of the boost protective cover), the rest of the CSM is silver. In the scaled models of Saturn V's I have seen, the whole upper part of the stack is white. It's clear in the photos here that it wasn't.

CJSF

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Two years ago moved from my town
I was looking up past the city lights
But the city lights got in my way

See the constellation ride across the sky
No cigar, no lady on his arm
Just a guy made of dots and lines

-from "See The Constellation"
by They Might Be Giants

Thanks cjc36! I had never really thought about that before.

Of course the HBer's could do the same thing Internet searches you did. There's also a plethora of information available in public libraries, not to mention the dozens and dozens of books that have been written by people actually involved in Apollo.

They either chose not to do the research or they just ignore what doesn't fit their ideas. Employing critical thinking about Apollo would put them at risk of unsettling their prejudices. I don't really understand the mentality, but I'm sure there is some interesting psychology behind it.

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"A mystic is a person who is puzzled before the obvious but who understands the nonexistent." -- Elbert Hubbard

*cough*
Do you see the quote from Calvin and Hobbes in my signature?
*cough*

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papageno


"Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous?" - Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes)

"It's all about context!" - Vince Noir (The Mighty Boosh)

"I've never heard of such a brutal and shocking injustice that I cared so little about!" - Zapp Brannigan (Futurama)

Conspiracists do not desire general knowledge about their subjects. They do not desire explanations for seemingly inconsistent evidence. Asking why they don't do the appropriate research presumes that conspiracists want those two things.

The conspiracy theorist only wants a picture of the evidence that makes it look like his theory is true. Or even worse, only a picture of evidence that makes the "official" explanation seem less credible than he says it should be.

It's not hard to learn about the BPC. But to a conspiracist, a white CM on the pad and a silver CM in space is just the kind of "inconsistency" he's looking for to argue that the Apollo photography was faked. It doesn't matter how easy it is to find out about the BPC. The conspiracist doesn't want to find out about it.

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"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

Oddly, even though I grew up during the early space flight period, I didn't learn about the BPC until recently while watching From Earth to the Moon. I thought it was just the tower and the cone it's mounted to that got jettisoned. I never knew there was a cover over the whole CM. Just goes to show that you are never too old to learn.

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You're a coward and a liar and a thOOF - Bart Sibrel

Curiously, during the launch & flight into orbit scene in the movie Apollo 13, you can hear the CapCom advise "We see your BPC is clear" prior to 'Lovell' jettisoning the Tower.

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams

Here a really nice scan of The Apollo 11 Command/Service Module (CSM) are being mated to the Saturn V Lunar Module Adapter. Notice how shiney it is, since there is no cover.

My question was mostly rehtorical. Folks who belive in conspiracies tend to mold the world in their own heads before they ever get within smelling distance of real facts. After it took me all of a few minutes to find my answer, I just had to throw up my hands and ask, why can't they?

Thanks for the scan, JR. I think that is the actual blue-hued metal surface. Jay Utah, is the really shiny metal tape put on this blue surface?

It is quite true that most of GLP disdains research because they do not need an "alternate" explanation; they already have one they are happy with.

We found during our long and sometimes even interesting discussion with Interdimensional Warrior that they also often lack the skills or energy to look up information needed to _support_ their claim (aka IDW's long rants about how nobody would give him data on solar flux).

But really, most of the posters at GLP are unwilling or unable to proof their own posts.

I am old-fashioned. Call me an English Major (actually, I was Theater.) My feeling is, if you can not express yourself clearly, you have not yet thought clearly.

It's been my experience with questions (I do a lot of helping on a large 3d art board), that many of them contain their own answer when carefully phrased. A large part of the remainder, when an attempt is made to parse them, resolve to a lack of any discernable question (or, at least, any answerable one).

In any case, when someone at GLP posts that "The radiation thing -- I don't the name -- would'da killed them"; well, this is a post from someone who has not spent the necessary minimum of effort to even learn what is being discussed. They are using borrowed arguments, chanting slogan because the mob looks like fun and they want to join whatever it is doing.

I gave such folk scant courtesy when I was there.

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