A recent high-flying space mission came within close proximity to the radiation belts, and the Astronauts described the same phenomenon that Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong experienced on their way to the Moon. The phenomenon entails the Astronauts seeing white sparks of light - even with their eyes closed. This happens because the spacecraft and Astronauts are bombarded with a storm of radioactive particles that seem to penetrate everything - including the eyes. The particles fly into the eyes (the eyes can be open or closed) and cause a dance of white light. Now, this phenomenon doesn't really prove anything about the moon hoax conspiracies. All this proves is that NASA knew the effects of the Van Allen belts during the days of Apollo; and, right they should, because the Van Allen belts were the biggest obstacle standing between them and the moon.
Let's not forget, the Apollo missions were part of the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States. The Soviet Union's space program may have been far more advanced than the United States' program during the early 1960s. After all, the Soviet program had an awful lot of firsts: first satellite in space, first man in space, first spacewalk, and first probe to land on the moon. The Soviet lunar probe landed on the moon in 1959 - a whopping 10 years before NASA sent Apollo 11 on its famous mission. Therefore, why did Cosmonauts never land on the moon? The Soviet Union's plethora of lunar probes brought back a startling discovery: space is dangerous. The Van Allen Belts, cosmic radiation, meteoric activity, and a host of other problems awaited any manned mission traveling far from Earth.
The dangers didn't stop brave Cosmonauts. In the early 1960s, several Cosmonauts signed a letter asking top Soviet science officials for permission to fly to the moon. Their proposal was quickly denied. Everyone in the Soviet space program knew that the dangers were far too great to risk the lives of brave men.
NASA seems to have found a way around the dangers of the Van Allen radiation belts. As can be seen in the picture above, NASA calculated that there were areas in the belts that were thinner than others. The radiation belts were thus thinner and closer to Earth at the axes. The use of this information in sending men to the Moon has some plausibility. If you've ever been near these axes - in a place like, say, Alaska - then you may have been witness to the Aurora Borealis (or Northern Lights). The Aurora Borealis has been thought of as a mystery for many years. It creates sweeping, glowing, hues across the skyline. Many theories state that this glowing is caused by excited air particles, but other theories claim that the proximity of the Van Allen radiation to Earth's axes causes this excitement. So, NASA claims that astronauts can move quickly through the radiation at points near the axes, because the Van Allen radiation is thinner here than in other places.
Though the Van Allen radiation is fierce, the more quickly a person moves through this radiation the better. NASA claims that one can move through the radiation in about an hour, and that this causes minimal damage to human tissue. This theory is given much credit by leading scientists.
Companies operating satellites in space also must understand the Van Allen belt radiation. Satellites in high Earth orbit can become damaged by the radiation, and thus an exact measurement of the radiation is needed. These radiation measurements lend themselves well to Apollo investigations. In the end, we find that (through complicated math and theory) Astronauts traveling through the Van Allen belts are exposed to the same amount of radiation in one hour that an average person is exposed to in 2-3 years. Needless to say, this is a heavy dose of radiation - but not one that would immediately cause sickness. There is a definite risk of cancer in the long term.
So, if the Van Allen radiation belts could be conquered, why didn't the Soviets conquer them and set foot upon the moon? Well, it turns out that there are more dangers out there than the belts. The Soviets quickly discovered the harshness of space. Were their fears irrational and unjustified? Perhaps the Soviets were first to learn the truth - that space is a harsh, dark, desolate place for human life. If Soviet science can be believed, then the plausibility of a moon hoax grows. The moon landing conspiracy theories only gain credibility with the state of Soviet science in the 1960s; however, perhaps the Soviet fears were irrational. Fears of solar radiation storms, cosmic rays, and other space nasties may have been somewhat irrational - that is, since America claims to have landed on the Moon with minimal protection from such things.
Maybe, just maybe, the Americans of the Apollo space missions rolled the dice, and like daring cowboys, rocketed toward the moon with their fingers crossed. The Van Allen radiation belt theories do not seem to support conspiracy theorists' claims as much as they used to. The emerging science of satellite technology has shown that it is possible for humans to fly through the belts; but, many conspiracy theorists will not pay attention to emerging space science discoveries.
In the next blog entry, I will zero in on the Soviet lunar probes, while providing more specific data about their finds.
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