The nearly forgotten story of how a radio amateur successfully detected transmissions from the first men to land on the Moon. The prophecies of Nostradamus: What did he predict for 2023? NTSC actually runs at 60/1.001 59.94 fields per second, and 30/1.001 29.97 frames per second. Its beam or field of view was such that, once pointed at the Moon, it could be let go for a little while, but pretty soon it would have to be reaimed because the motions of the Earth and Moon caused the Moon to drift out of the antennas field and the signal to be lost. Also, the Command Module DSE had the capability to record data live during certain periods from the Lunar Module as it flew separately in lunar orbit. But the true value, from a human perspective, is how the project captured and preserved the perspective of all the unsung heroes of the Apollo missionsnot just the astronauts who were front and center in the public eye. Recordings of this conversion were not lost and have long been available to the public (along with much higher-quality video from later Apollo missions). If it failed, it would lead to certain death, similar to the demise of the Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. Sven Grahn and Richard Flagg picked up transmissions from the Apollo 17 command module in orbit around the Moon using a 30 foot radio telescope dish, but they heard only two recognizable voice transmissions, each consisting of only a few words.4. There were only two such machines at NASA, and neither worked. [1], On November 1, 2006, Cosmos magazine reported that some NASA telemetry tapes from the Apollo project era had been found in a small marine science laboratory in the main physics building at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. Various experts had told him that it could not be done. At the time, the NTSC broadcast was recorded on many videotapes and kinescope films. Fortunately for everyone, none of the debris resulting from the Service Modules re-entry impacted the Command Module, and the astronauts all arrived safely back on Earth. Rutherford, now an assistant editor of the central Kentucky newspaper The Record, was interviewing me concerning the productive history-of-astronomy research program operated out of the Jefferson Community & Technical College observatory. If copies of the original SSTV format tapes were to be found, more modern digital technology could make a higher-quality conversion, yielding better images than those originally seen. Baysinger says that on the night of the Apollo 11 landing, he and Rutherford had to essentially aim the antenna at the Moon by getting behind it and sighting it like a gun. One signal branch was sent unprocessed to a 14-track analog data tape recorder, where it was recorded onto 14-inch (36cm) diameter reels of one-inch-wide (25mm) analog magnetic data tapes at 120 inches (3.0m) per second. The Lunar Module takes off from the Moon and docks with the Command and Service Module. [1] In the early 1980s, NASA's Landsat program was facing a severe data tape shortage and it is likely that during this period the tapes were erased and reused. They are sometimes garbled and sometimes have long periods of no voice. Ed. A single tape may include recordings from several different periods of the mission. Had those two modules collided, the astronauts on board would have had a failed re-entry, killing all three passengers. The moonwalk's converted video signal was broadcast live aro Even from our perspective in 2019, 50 years later, humanitys achievements from July, 1969, still mark the pinnacle of crewed spaceflight. Jennifer lives in Los Angeles. More info. The problem was that there were two types of thrusters on board the Service Module: the Minus X RCS jets and the RCS roll jets. [3] Their findings included a videotape recorded in Sydney after the conversion but before the satellite transmission around the world, videotape from CBS News archives (direct from NASA, without commentary) and kinescopes at Johnson Space Center. But only recently were the actual onboard recordings from Apollo 11 digitized so that the recordings could be made available on the Internet. This time when we go to the Moon, were actually going to stay. The Command Module then re-enters the Earths atmosphere, before finally parachuting down to land in the ocean. Mr Whitehead said: It is interesting when you watch the feed of when they came back from the Moon and theyre not sitting there jumping up and down for joy and saying, I had the most incredible experience of my life, I was on the Moon. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of theTerms and Conditions. Does 'stagehand reflected in astronaut's' visor prove it was filmed in a studio? (SSPL/Getty Images), Both the Command Module and the Service Module. The film consists solely of archival footage, including 70 mm film previously unreleased to the public, and does not feature narration, interviews or modern recreations. 'The Eagle has landed': Remembering Apollo 11 moon mission, descended toward the moons rocky surface on July 20, 1969, 160 heartbeats per minute: The final, frantic moments before the historic moon landing, Saturn V rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, uploaded all of the audio to the Internet Archive, The human factor: What it will take to build the perfect team for traveling to Mars. Indeed, Rutherfords story makes no mention of hearing anything unusual. Once safely away, the Command Module would re-orient itself so that the heat shield was in the forward-facing position, prepared to absorb the brunt of the impact of re-entering Earths atmosphere while protecting the astronauts inside. What happened in those two minutes has been subject to a lot of controversy.. The combined original and copied fields created the first full 525-line interlaced frame and the signal was then sent to Houston. Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misstated that NASA had dismissed ownership claims of George's Apollo moonwalk tapes and their authenticity. Crew: Neil Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., Michael Collins Launch: July 16, 1969; 9:32 a.m. EST Landing: July 24, 1969; 12:50 p.m. EST, Pacific Ocean NASA History This story has been corrected to reflect that. Christopher M. Graney is a professor of physics and astronomy at Jefferson Community & Technical College in Louisville, Kentucky. He independently detected radio transmissions from the Apollo 11 astronauts on the lunar surface. "You throw a match in that Clear Lake area, and it'll explode," says a voice in mission control. [1] In the early 1980s, NASA's Landsat program was facing a severe data tape shortage and it is likely the tapes were erased and reused at this time. Only limited radio bandwidth was available to transmit the video signal from the lunar landings, which needed to be multiplexed with other communication and telemetry channels beamed from the Lunar Module Eagle, back to Earth. Since the camera's scan rate was much lower than the approximately 30 fps for NTSC video,[Note 1] the television standard used in North America at the time, a real-time scan conversion was needed to be able to show its images on a regular TV set. An unanswered question in this story is whether there were other lunar eavesdropping projects conducted by Amateur Radio operators. "If it does not occur again, we're fine.". It is best to listen to the tapes while simultaneously viewing the same mission elapsed time on the transcript, since often the recordings are faint. The ground stations also recorded the data on special 1-inch, 14-track tapes, one track of which was for video. You can unsubscribe at any time. We have a tape of the air/ground [communication] during the launch phase. Baysingers accomplishment earned him some brief recognition a meeting with the Collins Radio Company, which supplied the communications systems for the Apollo spacecraft. center-left of the image, consists of two types of thrusters that control both acceleration and orientation. Prior to moving to New York, she spent years writing for independent media outlets across the Middle East and aims to produce accurate coverage of science stories within a regional context. The Truth Was Out. Shortly after the. Mr Bara, who also appeared on the History Channel, said both of NASAs astronauts were evidently upset by something they saw on the Moon within 30 minutes of landing. NASA Moon landing: Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, NASA Moon landing: Conspiracists are intrigued by two minutes of radio silence, Moon landing: How NASA hid secret ceremony on Apollo 11 from public, Mystery as flaming object spotted spiralling through sky over UK, UFO sighting on NASA ISS live stream - alien hunters in shock claim, Moon landing: A timeline of the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing, SHOCK claim footprint does not match Neil Armstrong's boot. [25], On July 6, 2019, Sotheby's announced that they would have available for sale, on July 20, three 2-inch (50mm) video tape reels out of a total of 1,150 reels bought at a government surplus auction in 1976, at a price of $218 US dollars. On July 16, 1969, the world watches as the three Apollo 11 astronauts attempt the impossible: to ride a controlled explosion off Planet Earth, land on another celestial body and return home. The astronauts might not have successfully returned to Earth, however, if the procedure used to jettison the fuel from the Service Module had let it come into contact with the Command Module. If the Service Module had collided with the Command Module, a re-entry disaster similar to Space Shuttle Columbia could have occurred just as the USA was taking the conclusive steps of the Space Race. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on 20 July 1969, Nasa used two film cameramen at mission control in Houston to capture the moment back on Earth. (WHAS and the Courier-Journal were both owned by the Bingham family of Louisville and it was through this connection that Rutherford met Baysinger and became aware of his work.) by Some scientists and NASA researchers have even gone as far as to claim NASAs astronauts came across evidence of alien activity on the Moon. [28], NASA held a news conference at the Newseum, in Washington, D.C. regarding the missing tapes on July 16, 2009 the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's launch from Cape Kennedy. The Command and Service Modules first needed to separate, with the astronauts inside the Command Module and the Service Module being jettisoned. Fortunately, his accomplishments were recorded by Glenn Rutherford, a young reporter for the Louisville (Kentucky) Courier-Journal. On July 21, after just 21 hours and 36 minutes on the Moon, the ascent engine fired, bringing the Eagle back to dock with Columbia, and returning astronauts Aldrin and Armstrong to the Command and Service Module with astronaut Collins. Could it be that there were agencies associated with the Moon, aliens or other beings who have wanted humanity to stay away from the Moon? 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