Perception Artists

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On TV last night, I watched a documentary about Appollo 11 and how the historic 1969 mission almost never got off the launch pad. The problems the mission encountered included the almost certain death of the astronauts if the Saturn IV exploded before it cleared the launch tower, being followed by a UFO, absobing z-rays, LEM master alarm repeated on lunar descent, running out of fuel and being stranded on the moon because of a broken switch.

At the time, the general public were not aware of these dangers faced by the astronauts. NASA managed to contain the facts about the issues the mission faced.

The perception that alll was going to plan was maintained throughout.

I have always assumed that the command module fastened to a safety rocket at the pinnacle of the 360ft high Saturn IV rocket was able to blast away from the main rocket in the event of a catastrophic failure like a massive explosion at take-off.

Apparently my percetion has been upheld and managed rather well by NASA over the years until last night when I learned that the escape tower attached to the CM (command module with the astronauts strapped inside) needed two seconds to ignite the rockets that would blast the crew to safety.

According to the documentary, the explosions of the rupturing Saturn IV fuel tanks (millions of litres of hydrogen fuel) would occur quicker than the problem could be detected by the software onboard or at Space Centre to kickstart the ejection process, thus nullifying the 2 second window required by the safety system. The 3 crew members would have died instantly.

I was shocked. There are some seriously good and well skilled Perception Artists out there. Now I cannot trust NASA anymore.