🚀 go-pugleaf

-From: higgins@fnalo.fnal.gov (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey)
-Subject: Re: NASA Coverup
-Date: 4 Nov 92 15:22:43 GMT

-In article <1992Nov4.140750.22909@nntpd2.cxo.dec.com>, doucette@hannah.enet.dec.com () writes:
-> Gravity can be mathematically derived
-> from physical observations.  Case in point:
-> 
-> Monday night on PBS, there was a special on Space Exploration which showed an
-> interesting experiment.  One of the astronauts dropped a hammer and feather
-> at the same time to show that Galieo was right.  
-[...]
-> d = Distance object travels
-> a = acceleration due to gravity
-> t = time it takes to drop.
-> 
-> 	d = 1/2at**2   or	a = 2d/t**2

-Hidden assumption:  this film is playing back on your TV set at the
-same speed it was photographed.  (Or is it video?)  In any case, you
-need to know the correct frame rate to get an accurate value for t, and
-even then you will have some irreducible error in the measurement,
-thanks to the discrete time resolution of film and video.

It was video, which many people remember as being broadcast live. Looking at
the video at full speed and a frame at a time, it looks pretty realistic.
Assuming for the moment that the video is authentic, the release appears to
be from very close to four feet up, and the fall from release to impact is
~36-37 frames (at a presumed 30 frames/second for NTSC standard). That
works out to lunar gravity of around 1/5.8 to 1/6.1 Earth gravity. I 
suppose it would have been possible to film it in a large vacuum chamber
on Earth, with movie film running at 75 frames/second (or maybe 150 - my
VCR doesn't advance half-frame), then transcribe it slowed down onto video,
but it would be very difficult to get the astronaut to move at 2.5 times
normal rate and to sync the voice to the body movements.

Some of the lunar rover video would essentially be impossible to film
on the Earth.

By the way, "Space Age" is a great television series. Some of the nitpickers
might complain that their particular viewpoint didn't get full coverage,
but they seem to try to have pretty good representation of the the views
they do cover. There's plenty that the general public doesn't generally
see (at least those who don't have NASA Select :-), including some really
spectacular video. (I've been meaning to post a summary of what's been
shown, but there's so much to include that it will be a major undertaking.)

With this six-part series running now, and "Inside Space" on the Sci-fi
Channel, this is really a great time for space coverage on TV. (The Thursday
episode of "Good Morning America" is scheduled to show an item on NASA
selection of a rover for use on Mars.)

John Roberts
roberts@cmr.ncsl.nist.gov