One of the strong arguments against the moon landings is the belt of radiations surrounding the earth that the astronauts had to cross through, and they are the only astronauts to have ever come through these belts.
One of the strong arguments against the moon landings is the belt of radiations surrounding the earth that the astronauts had to cross through, and they are the only astronauts to have ever come through these belts. |
 But Robert Braeunig has said that it was no problem, for the astronauts could go around the most dangerous part of these radiations in order to get as little radiations as possible. Oh really, could they? |
 Braeunig should have read more attentively the NASA documentation describing the trajectory followed by the command module, for he would have seen that the command module was not taking any trajectory, but a very precise trajectory instead, which was consisting in the S-IVB not only giving it an initial speed to the command module, but also an initial direction corresponding with the position of the moon when the command module would reach it, and, generally, in the Apollo missions, the command module has arrived near the moon when it was close to its first quarter, and, it was then at a direction which was much different from the angle that the orbital plane of the moon makes with the equatorial plane of the earth; The purpose of this maneuver was to optimize the consumption of propellant by avoiding to make changes of direction. Taking the trajectory preconized by Braeunig would have forced the command module to consume too much propellant by making all these changes of direction, and it would have jeopardized the moon mission. And, at the point of the first mid-couse correction, the latitude was of 17° (south) only, whuch means that the command module could not have seen the earth under this angle. |
 When the command module is close to the earth, it sees it under a too wide angle for the Hasselblad camera to be able to capture the complete earth, the camera could only see a part of it. |
 But the blue marble was taken at a distance of 45000 kimometers from the earth, and, at that distance, the earth is seen under an angle of 16° only, which means that the Hasselblad camera was perfectly able to have a complete view of the earth. |
 You can notice that the earth of the blue marble is entirely lit by the sun, we can see no shadow on it, no crescent. That means that the command module was exactly in the direction of the sun when this photo was taken, and also that the command module was in the solar orbital plane. Yet, it shouldn't have been in this plane, but in the lunar orbital plane according to the trajectory that the NASA engineers had planned. |
 At the time of Apollo 17, it was close to winter solstice, and the earth was at the position which has been circled on this representation. |
 The earth was seen spinning this way from the solar orbital plane. |
 And it was seen spinning that way from the lunar orbital plane. |
 The view of the earth which is the closest to the blue marble (taken from the animation of the earth spinning in the solar plane, since apparently the blue marble has been taken in that plane) is this one. |
 If we compare this view with the blue marble, we can see that there is a a clear problem with Africa (that we can perfectly identify on the blue marble). Africa is oversized on the blue marble relatively to what it should look like (as shown on the real view of the earth). |
But, it is not the only observation we can make on this blue marble, there is still a more shrewd observation we can make. As the earth we see is entirely lit, it means that the command module was in the direction of the sun when this photo was taken, and also that the meridian which appears on the middle of this view corresponds to noon. So, it would have been around noon on the island of madagascar (that we can see on the center of the view, or close to it) when the blue marble was taken; but was it? We can check it! |
 Apollo 17 was launched at 5 hours 33 minutes UTC in the morning (6 hours 33 minutes GT). |
 According to the timeline of Apollo 17, the blue marble would have been taken 5 hours and 6 minutes later, which puts the capture of the blue marble at 10 hours and 39 minutes UTC, so 11 hours and 39 minutes GT. So, it was just a little before noon on the meridian of Greenwich when the blue marble was taken. |
 On the planisphere, I have shown what was the meridian on which it was noon at the time that the blue marble was taken (just a little left of Paris). |
 I show here the view of the animation of the spinning earth which is the closest to this moment. This is the view of the earth the command module should have seen when the blue marble was taken. |
 But, if we compare this view with the blue marble, we can see that there is a big problem: Africa is not at all positioned the same on the two views; on the real view it is positioned right, and, on the blue marble, it is positioned left. |
An Apollo believer has asserted that we would see a faint shadow on the right of the earth (and also that we would not see a full half earth), but this shadow is not enough to explain the important error; it would just shlightly shift the view of the earth we would see, but not enough to explain the error.  And, to counter this argument, I have also made a different study, by using the coordonates which are indicated in the mission report of Apollo 17. Thge point of separation of the command module from the S-IVB (moment that the command module already has its initial speed and direction, as given by the S-IVB) has 27.91° South latitude and 37.68° East longitude as coordinates, according to the mission report of Apollo 17. The point of the first mid-course correction has 17.04° South Latitude and 22.82° West longitude as coordinates, still according the mission report of Apollo 17. The coordinates of the command module at the moment it took the blue marble are those of the center of the earth it took. I checked on Google Earth, and it is not very far from the coordinates at the point of separation from the S-IVB (but a little greater latitude however). But, between the point of separation from the S-IVB and the point of first mid-correction, the command module makes no change of direction, and follows an almost straight trajectory. The point of separation from the S-IVB is done at a distance of 13394 kilometers from the earth: the point of first mid-correction est at 128220 kilometers from the earth. We know that the blue marble has been taken at a distance of 45000 kilometers from the earth. So we can approximately calculate, with a rule of three, the coordinates of the point where the blue marble has been taken, and it gives 24.92° South Latitude, and 21.02° East longitude. I have centered the earth in Google earth so that the center corresponds with these coordinates, and I show above what it gives. Africa is more centered relatively to the blue marble, and lower. |
 This is the photo AS17-148-22741, and it would have been taken by the astronauts of Apollo 17 around a day after the launch. |
 On the close-up of this photo, we can clearly see Australia, but, strangely, we can see no other land. |
 If we compare with a corresponding real view of the earth, where are all the lands we can see on the real view? All hidden by clouds? |
 We should at least see New Guinea, I have circled on the real view. It can't be entirely hidden by clouds. We can see the blue of the sea where it should be. |
 Another photo, AS17-148-22740, has been taken a little less than two hours before. |
 If we compare it with the next photo, the comparison is not very easy because the camera has been turned between the two photos. |
 The comparison is made easier if we turn the first photo so that the two earths have the same orientation. We can see that Australia has moved right, which is normal because of the time lapse between the two photos (and the quantity of the move corresponds to the difference of time). But we can see that Australia has the same shape and orientation on the two photos. |
 Yet, on a real spinning earth, when Australia moves from left to right, its shape and orientation change. |
 So, finally, there is no way that these photos may have been taken by Apollo 17 during its trip to the moon, and for a good reason which is... |
 ...that Apollo 17 never went to the moon!!! |
