Originally posted by secretnasaman
[1]..."...We are told by NASA control in Huntsville, Alabama that, "there seems to be a lot of moonlight reflecting off the water. Is that a real
picture, or are we getting some video fuzz?"
[2]...judging by the enormity of ice that NASA allegedly says was "dumped out earlier," one would have to question where the space shuttle produces
so much ice.
[3] Is it a giant snow cone machine in space that dumps huge ice crystals several times each day? You need water to make ice. Where did the shuttle
carry so much water (weight) & why does it make ice out of its water supply (presumably for drinking, bathing & experiments) & dump it all out?...it
seemed like an awful waste of water considering how much energy it takes for the space shuttle to carry all this water out into space just so that the
astronauts can make snow cones & then throw them out the window.
[4] ... So we know that hydrogen gas can get dumped overboard. Hydrogen gas is very volatile & must dissolve or burn up very quickly under the
influence of intense radiation from the sun...
[5] ...water is only dumped in case of an emergency as the manual further states, "The EMU dump will be used only if an EVA is required". Of course
the astronauts on the shuttle don't make a habit of dumping out water just for fun. If they did, they would be out of their own water supply very
quickly.
[6] ...space is a dichotomy with regards to its temperature. Space is cold, but as soon as any gas, liquid or solid object is exposed to bare space,
the intense radiation from the sun quickly causes heat to be formed & very fast nuclear & chemical reactions take place.
[7] ...The question about alleged "ice crystals" is that we know that pieces of ice (even a few meters in diameter) could not survive the intense
radiation from the sun & stars in space for very long. In fact what we were told by the astronauts on these missions was that the alleged ice crystals
we were seeing were being dumped out of the shuttle when in truth, they rarely dump out water. Water is not ice. If the ice or water were dumped from
the shuttle in an emergency water release situation, it should dissolve very quickly, yet these alleged ice crystals did not."
[8] ...I'm certain Rev. Jim will keep us entertained in the meantime ...
Discussing #8 first, I find the only reason to read Martyn's stuff is for pure entertainment purposes, and the items 1-7 provide evidence for
that.
#1 -- When I worked there, Mission Control was in Houston, Texas, and by all credible accounts, it still is. There's a payloads office in Huntsville
(formerly known, in dubious honor of all the German scientists there, as 'Hunsville') but they have nothing to do with the operational aspects of
the shuttle (or its payload bay cameras).
#2 -- The majority of the water dumped is a waste product of the fuel cells, which 'burn' o2 and h2 to create the electrical power that feeds the
shuttle. That has been explained in many places including the Weekly Reader. When docked to a space station, that water is bagged and then transferred
into the station for long-term use, which is why such dumps aren't needed as often during docked operations.
#3 -- Didn't Martyn understand the explanation in the Weekly Reader?
#4 -- "Gas", already being a gas, can't be "volatile" -- eager to convert itself into a gas. And hydrogen can't burn in the vacuum of space --
no oxygen. Probably another missed issue of the Weekly Reader.
#5 -- The water dump referred to here as an 'emergency' involves an 'EMU', the backpack used during spacewalks. It has nothing to do with water
dumps from the space shuttle itself. Water is slowly expended during spacewalks from a flash evaporator in the backpacks, to cool the suit.
#6 -- Heat does not involve chemical and nuclear reactions -- I know of no nuclear reactions induced by exposing matter to sunlight in space. Can
anybody help, or is this more pure imagination at work?
#7 -- Here's where it all adds up. Shuttles "rarely" dump water, Martyn claims -- overlooking all of the scheduled water dumps on all of the
regular missions. Ice dissolves quickly, he says, overlooking videotaped evidence of hunks of ice persisting on the shuttle's exterior for days --
and once, even through reentry and landing. And when astronauts say otherwise, Martyn warns us, they are lying -- it's that simple.
As I said, read his stuff for entertainment purposes only, certainly not in expectation of learning anything about reality.