Suppressed Inventions and Other Discoveries (49 page)

However, true-to-the-Moon photos posed a bit more of a problem. Because the twentieth century is the age of increasingly sophisticated photography, huge amounts of tape and film had to be expended. NASA seemed to do precisely that. As Harry Hurt put it,"... Project Apollo was one of the most extensively documented undertakings in human history .. ."
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Despite this alleged fact and the fact that the NASA Apollo mission photo numbers seem to indicate that thousands of pictures were taken, we keep seeing the same few dozen pictures in all the books on space.

Using the well developed art of Hollywood style special effects (FX) the astronauts could be photographed "on the Moon" in the top secret studio set up near Mercury, Nevada. Of course, there is a bit more to great FX than having the best equipment. As in any art form, the artists are always more important than their tools. The backbone of superb FX is lodged in the Hollywood professionals who devote their lives to it. Lacking access to these relatively liberal experts NASA was forced to use CIA hacks . . . relative amateurs.

Nevertheless, they did their job well enough to pass casual inspection for many years. It worked only because we wanted to believe! As long as we had something to hang our hats on we could continue to have faith and ignore the anomalies in the evidence the photos provided. It worked ... for a while!

GRISSOM'S FINAL MISTAKE

At the time of his death Grissom was one of NASA's old-timers. He was the man who, a few short years before, certified that the astronauts had been involved in every step of the program and had been free to criticize at will, and even suggest ideas for improvements. He was the man whose fatal error was no more than in being who he was; an independent thinker ... a free spirit who seemed to be completely unaware that NASA had wholeheartedly opted to enact the second part of the old saying, "If you can't make it, fake it!"

He had been selected as Commander of Apollo I, the first manned flight of the Apollo series. Grissom's crew included Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee. White flew on Gemini 4 but Chaffee was a newcomer who had not as yet been in space, or verified the NASA rite of passage by condemning the visibility of stars and planets.

THE HANDICAP

Right from the beginning, NASA was operating under a tremendous handicap. They were in a space race with a nation who, they knew, had operational rockets that made ours seem like tinker toys by comparison. The Soviets started their space program in capsules that were 50 times heavier than those we were launching six months later.

Russian capsules were closer to being compressed air tanks than flimsy space capsules. Their ships had sufficient wall strength to maintain normal atmospheric pressure inside the craft against the zero pressure outside in space. However, since we didn't have rockets to lift that sort of weight, we couldn't afford this luxury. We had to make light, [almost] tin foil, capsules just to get into the ball game.

The differential in pressure between the 14.7 psi (our normal atmospheric pressure) and the zero pressure of space amounts to 2116 pounds per square foot of outward loading on the enclosing wall of a capsule. Compare this figure with the floor of a house—which is designed to be safely loaded to only 30 pounds per square foot—and you will realize that relatively heavy metal is vital for skin and skeleton if you want to enjoy normal pressure. It is wall strength that prevents catastrophic and explosive depressurization of small capsules. The LEM's walls will be discussed in more detail later in the book.

BREATHING MIXTURES

The greater lifting capacity of their rockets allowed the Russians the luxury of using a mixture of 20 percent oxygen and 80 percent nitrogen—the equivalent to regular air. Naturally it wasn't stored on board as bulky "compressed air." It was stored separately as liquids in cryogenic tanks. However, the nitrogen supply was smaller since the gas is inert to the human body and additional nitrogen is required only to help reestablish pressure when the cabin is vented to space. Oxygen tanks were larger because the only oxygen used is that small portion converted into CO
₂
, by the necessity of breathing and this is immediately removed from the cabin by chemicals. A great deal is also lost when the cabin is vented to space during depressurization.

PURE OXYGEN

Lacking strong walled capsules, NASA decided right from the beginning to use 50 percent oxygen and 50 percent nitrogen at 7 psi. This specification was changed in August 1962, into the use of pure oxygen at 5 psi.
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A policy shift of this nature indicates that approved design of the capsules being manufactured was weaker than expected. The amazing thing is that NASA made this deadly decision despite testing that usually ended in disaster. One would think that after testing showed disaster that one would never implement a dangerous policy. But NASA was in a race with destiny. They had no time for common sense.

NASA TESTS

Here is a list of all government sponsored testing that resulted in oxygen fires. This information was extracted from Appendix in Mission To The Moon written by Kennan & Harvey:

September 9, 1962—The first known Simulator at Brooks Air Force Base fire occurred in the Space Cabin in a chamber using 100 percent

oxygen at 5 psi. It was explosive and involved the CO
₂
scrubber. Both occupants collapsed from smoke inhalation before being rescued.

November 17, 1962—Another psi in a chamber at the Navy pants in the chamber, but the simple replacing of a burned-out light bulb caused their clothes to catch on fire. They escaped in 40 seconds but all suffered burns. Two were seriously injured.
"safety" blanket caught fire and burned causing

In addition an asbestos one man's hand to catch fire. incident using 100 percent oxygen at 5 Laboratory (ACEL). There were four occu

July 1, 1964—This explosion was at an AIResearch facility when they were testing an Apollo cabin
injured. The composition of the
air temperature

atmosphere and
sensor. No one was pressure isn't listed, but we have to assume 100 percent oxygen (and possible pressure equal to atmospheric).

February 16, 1965—This fire killed two occupants at the Navy's Experimental Diving Unit in Washington,
percent and the pressure at 55.6 psi.
D.C. The oxygen was at 28 The material in the chamber

apparently supported extremely rapid combustion, driving the pressure up to 130 psi.
April 13, 1965—Another explosion Apollo equipment. Again, neither as AIResearch was testing more pressure or atmospheric composition is given but a polyurethane foam cushion exploded.

April 28, 1966—More Apollo equipment was destroyed as it was being tested under 100 percent oxygen and 5 psi at the Apollo Environmental Control System in Torrance, CA.

January 1, 1967—The

Grissom, Chaffee and last known test was over three weeks before White suffered immolation. Two men were handling 16 rabbits in a chamber of 100 percent oxygen at 7.2 psi at Brooks Air Force Base and all living things died in the inferno. The cause may have been as simple as a static discharge from the rabbits' fur. . . but

we'll never know.

Of course, NASA's moronic decision to use pure oxygen would play a crucial part in the deadly fire on Pad 34 a few years later. Never mind that the test was classified as "non hazardous" by NASA. Only after Grissom, White and Chaffee died in that fire, would NASA again change the specs to either 60-40 or 50-50 oxygen/nitrogen mixes at 5 psi, depending on what source I've read.
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In pure oxygen at normal pressure even a piece of steel wool will burn rapidly. In fact, Michael Collins claims that even stainless steel will burn.
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As mentioned already an asbestos blanket, normally classed as fireproof, was consumed when used to smother flames during an oxygen fire.
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Pure oxygen is extremely hazardous!

To successfully switch to reduced pressure breathing of pure oxygen one must first purge the body of nitrogen. This prevents residual nitrogen left in the body from forming small bubbles which expand from the decreasing pressure. To deep sea divers this is known as "the bends." To avoid this lethal hazard astronauts must spend some period of time breathing 100 percent oxygen—which is medically dangerous— at full atmospheric pressure just before the mission.

The pressure problem in a space capsule is [analogous] to those encountered in a submarine. Submarine hulls are deliberately strong, to resist the increasing pressure at depth. If a submarine hull was as thin as our space crafts—at 200 feet deep it would require an internal pressure of 100 psi—at 300 feet a pressure is 150 psi.

PRESSURE TESTING

The Apollo Program command capsules must be regarded as flimsy, even though they were built of titanium which has the strength of steel and weighs half as much. I reason that if our capsules were too weak to withstand normal pressure they must also have been too weak to keep the atmosphere from crushing the capsule on the launching pad. If this was true they had to be using 100 percent oxygen at normal pressure during the launch.

It was found out that this is precisely what NASA did on all their launches. It is obvious that the present Shuttles, with 50 tons of cargo capacity, could use normal pressure and regular air. However, the designers may still begrudge the few pounds of extra material in the cabin that it takes to do this. By the same token our large diameter commercial airliners are able to maintain almost regular atmospheric pressure, and don't have to resort to pure oxygen, even when flying over 40,000 feet. Neither does the SST which hits altitudes of 60,000 feet.

To insure the integrity of the capsule NASA subjected it to their pressure test. One would assume that they would use compressed air for this test because the electric panels had power and live men were inside the unit. However, when it came time to test the 012 capsule on Pad 34 it was decided to use pure oxygen at a pressure somewhat above our atmospheric pressure of 14.7 psi. What the actual pressure was is confusing. It was either 16.7 psi according to Michael Collins, or 20.2 psi as reported by Frank Borman.
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One would think that intelligent men with the "Right Stuff' would precisely know the pressures used. But either way, there were astronauts locked inside—practicing for their first Apollo mission. After the accident NASA claimed the test was SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). In either case an idiot was in charge.

If it was SOP, then the idiot was the official who instituted and approved this test program. If not, then it was the low level idiot in direct charge of the test who gave the order to proceed. I have no fear of a libel suit because of this accusation. The only legal defense in a libel suit is whether what you said was the truth, as determined by a jury. If you were on a jury and watched steel wool explode in a 16.7 psi 100 percent oxygen atmosphere what would you decide?

I find it hard to believe that this test was SOP. In fact, I suspect that it wasn't, simply because two men with the "Right Stuff' can't agree. NASA telling us after the fire that it was always done that way, doesn't prove a thing. NASA, like all political organizations, can always be counted on to say anything to better their position. Using pure oxygen at this pressure, once the panels were live, means that every launch was always one small spark away from disaster. Combustion in 100 percent oxygen even at low pressures, is extremely rapid. At higher pressures it becomes explosive!

HIGH PRESSURE OXYGEN

Consider this standard procedure: Burning a substance using high pressure oxygen is precisely the method used to determine the number of calories in that substance. The test procedure requires placing the sample in a strong steel pressure vessel called a "Calorimeter Bomb." The "Bomb" is placed in an insulated container of water holding a known quantity of water at a known temperature. There is an electrical sparking device inside the bomb and sufficient high pressure oxygen is added to insure complete combustion of the material.

Even relatively wet foodstuffs are quickly reduced to ashes once the electric spark initiates combustion. This process produces high pressures in the steel chamber. That's why it's called a Calorimeter Bomb. The heat transfers to the surrounding water and the rise in temperature using known parameters results in the quantity of calories (energy) in the substance tested.

To get back to the discussion, every time an electric switch is thrown the induction of the electric current causes a tiny spark to jump between the two switch contacts. If the unit is explosion proof (like the switches motors, and lighting fixtures used in hazardous or explosive locations), that spark is safely enclosed in a hermetically scaled container. If not anyt h i n g near it that is combustible can burn.

In standard electrical switches the electrical insulation is some form of plastic (hydrocarbon). All hydrocarbons can be oxidized if there is sufficient oxygen and heat to raise the temperature of some small portion of that substance beyond the flash point. Bear in mind that an electric spark is a plasma. Indeed the temperature at the core of a large spark can be so high it is indeterminable.

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION

The phenomena we call spontaneous combustion is also oxidation. Under normal conditions oxygen in the air begins to oxidize almost any material. In fact what we call rust on metal is supposed to be very slow oxidation. If the material is insulated to any degree, the heat created by the process cannot escape as fast as it is generated. So the entrapped heat creates a small temperature rise which increases the rate of oxidation. If some or all of that increased heat cannot escape there is a self-escalating "loop." The temperature continues to rise until the flash point is reached. At that point the material concerned bursts into flame. That's "spontaneous" combustion.