Hi I’ve started this new thread because when I was a mod. on the now defunct Panasonic 3CCDuser site, 2004-08, we learned a lot including the fact people don’t like scrolling down passing a long line of posts just to read to the latest one. Also we don’t post any links, people click on them and don’t come back. And don’t post a big slab of continous text without paragraphs or good grammar, people just bypass them and mostly don’t return. All true and it’s happening on Quora today.

Right now if you’re reading this and it’s the year 2036 don’t ask me any questions because I’m not here. But today I am, it’s Monday 6th April 2026, 1550hr Local and I’m interested in the Artemis II mission, one reason is I’ve got 5 grandkids, the youngest two think grandpa knows everything, and I can’t just keep telling them I don’t know.

I’ve said, when this current mission first started, watching the YouTube NASA channel was boring, I think one reason is while they covered everything else, they thought occasional live news conferences with regular converstions with the crew would do it, with graphic visualisations in between. But public opinion didn’t like it, so now we have fill in programs to cover the mission.

And most of it is fascinating, they’re including stories of earlier NASA missions and I thought one they’d maybe stay away from, Apollo 13 when they came very close to losing everything.

Currently watching ageing Astronauts tell their stories with fun along the way is entertaining, and anything the Artemis II crew find amusing is also fun, eg: their problem toilet, which my cute grandkids think is funny but embarassing. But YouTube is repeating them within 60 miutes which indicates they don’t have many video programs to show us and Apollo 13 is now showing again.

One interesting current aspect, the crew conduct regular conferences with their familes, and also regular psychological conferences with their NASA specialists, both of which we don’t see or hear. But I’d like to hear and watch the brainy one.

So now they’ll be starting to get ready to fly past the far side of the Moon later on Monday, April 6, that’s early Tuesday morning Sydney time.

Funny I’ve heard no mention that Orion might or will, fly directly over the Chinese settlement there. But I’ll bet both NASA and the Chinese have thought of this and they’ll both be ready for it. The Chinese will cover their sensitive stuff and probably give the 4 Orion crew the finger, while they’ll photograph the heck out of it.

So if you are reading this in 2-0-3-6 that’s what’s happening today.
Cheers.

I just love how their space toilet is stealing the bulk of their 'media oxygen'.

Hilarious.

Andrew

It is Andrew, some fun on their voyage.

It’s Tuesday 7th April 2030hr local. Recently on the YouTube NASA channel, the crew on the International Space Station said they exercise 2 hours a day, because muscle and bone density slowly diminish in space. That will frighten a lot of viewers because they, and me are not doing anything like that here on Earth.

So Orion has flown past the Moon, did you watch it on the YouTube NASA channel? It was a bit of a flash in the pan so to speak. Once again despite some occasional narration, the 40 minutes of silence didn’t help it one bit. But at that exact time YouTube had more viewers on their one channel than they’d ever had before, countless thousands - and it didn’t crash. Score another success for YouTube.

But they should have had music for the Moon fly past, Frank Sinatras ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ would have been good, and I’ll bet someone in Houston actually suggested playing it …

https://youtu.be/ZEcqHA7dbwM

That exact version by F.S. became synonymous with NASA's Apollo program and was played on a cassette player during the Apollo 11 mission just before the first moon landing. But I guess they didn’t play it this time, in case there’s trouble on the Orion return flight before they landed, and it comes back to bite Houston on the butt.
Cheers.

I only watched the actual launch video of the rocket going up, and already I was thinking that Space X does such a better job of it all.

Like your music selection, so many golden opportunities are missed. I don't care about one pope or another, but having the latest one start with wearing sun glasses and saying "we're on a mission from God" would have been epic since he was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois.

If you're turning up and getting the work done, you might as well have some fun!

Andrew

Some relevant thoughts …

Artemis is a triumph of 80s engineering.

Laser communications but only a badly configured GoPro streaming 720p from the moon.

In 1968, Apollo 8 made lunar orbit (unlike Artemis) with 60s technology.

Also in 1968, Stanley Kubrick and his technology advisers reasonably predicted international moon bases serviced by spaceliners and shuttles by 2001.

Progress since 1972 has been underwhelming and its all Stanley Kubrick's fault.

SpaceX is the future.

Progress since 1972 has been underwhelming and its all Stanley Kubrick's fault.

Aren't you confused here? I mean, of course it's all Kubrick's fault, but only because we never actually went to the moon and he was hired to make the fake videos and film. Haven't you seen "Room 237?"

;-)

Ah of course - I didn't connect the dots.

But I can't believe Kubrick would have approved of the 320 line 10 fps B&W camera for Apollo 11, and he certainly would have replaced the Apollo 12 camera after Al Bean pointed it at the sun and burnt the tube.

But I suppose shooting it all in 65mm would have been a bit of a giveaway.

Must go to Space X Starbase sometime to see how they are faking the Starship launches.

Starship rockets are really only about 2 meters tall. They use some tricky camera angles and forced perspective to make them look much bigger. You can buy the core "booster" at any roadside hut that sells fireworks, I believe they call them Roman candles. But they aren't actually made it Rome anymore because Fiat sold their aerospace unit to a Chinese company that specializes in firecrackers. And If you look closely, you can even see the fishing line they use to make it "lift off'. Fake, but at least not CGI, so there is that.

A few haircuts ago I was discussing 'interesting' stuff with my my hairdresser and he (possibly sarcastically) says to me "So do you believe the world is flat?"

Without skipping a beat I said "Course not. There's mountains."

True story.

Andrew

PS. He didn't even laugh. This may or may not be a good sign.

It’s a good sign Andrew lol.

Late Monday night local I took the trash out to the bin and looked up at the clear sky and the bright 3/4 Moon. After watching their progress on the NASA YouTube channel, it’s easy to visualise Orion on its way back to Earth, and I’m reminded how much the Moon and the Sun influence the ebb and flow of the oceans tides.

On Tuesday 7th local the NASA YouTube channel was still showing details from the NASA Crew Training Resource Reel 8. A year ago a large contingent of NASA trainees including the Artemis II crew, went to Iceland to spend time living on the side on one of Iceland’s volcanoes. They had all the gear to pitch tents and live there for a while.

All the trainees walked around and chipped at the dried lava for a simulated moon experience. Hey now here’s something that’s closer to home, many years ago on a cruise we stopped at the capital Reykjavik for 18 hours and my wife and I swam in the famous Blue Lagoon for an hour. The water is high in salinity (about 2.5%, roughly one-third the salt content of the ocean), which enhances buoyancy and allows for an effortless floating experience.

And we took a group drive out to a large dormant volcano. I picked up small pieces of lava for my grandkids to present at Show and Tell at school, but I don’t know where that lava is now, and that’s about the closest I’ll ever get to the Moon.

It’s now April 9th Thursday 11:00h local and there’s now 10 channels on the NASA YouTube site and there’s continuous programs on all of them. One is an explanation of what the Chinese are doing on the back side of the Moon and it’s amazing, making it easy to see why NASA wants to build a settlement asap. It’s worth watching.

On the live NASA YouTube channel right now the Orion crew is checking their cabin equipment, while there’s semi continuous commentary from Houston, however it’s still silent in between. On another channel there’s discussion about the new type of heat shield for the landing on Friday, it’s not as easy as it would seem. The Orion spacecraft's heat shield consists of a complex multi-layered structure designed to withstand temperatures reaching approximately 2,760° Celsius (5,000F degrees) during lunar re-entry. It measures 16.5 feet in diameter and is the largest of its kind ever developed for crewed missions.

The outermost layer is made of Avcoat, a reformulated version of the material used during the Apollo program. It is a composite of silica fibers embedded in an epoxy novolac resin. Unlike the Apollo shield, which was applied as a single monolithic honeycomb. Orion's shield is composed of roughly 180–186 unique pre-machined blocks. These blocks are bonded to the spacecraft's skin, and the gaps between them are filled with a specialised adhesive mixture. The blocks are mounted onto a titanium truss base structure covered with a composite substrate. This substrate is a skin made of multiple layers of carbon fibre.

Stronger connection points on the spacecraft use a material called 3DMAT (3-Dimensional Multifunctional Ablative Thermal Protection System), which consists of woven quartz threads in resin. The exterior is finished with a coat of white epoxy paint and covered with aluminised tape to manage solar heat and infrared emissions while in orbit. (I found all that on the NASA site)

The re-entry for the Orion spacecraft on Friday, April 10, 2026, is a high-speed, 13-minute journey through Earth's atmosphere. The re-entry process officially begins at the entry interface around 4:53 p.m. PDT and ends with splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at approximately 5:07 p.m. PDT. (It starts Saturday 10:53am Sydney time, just before lunch.)

The world will be following them on Friday/Saturday. Good luck Orion. Thanks for reading, click the photo to enlarge it. Cheers.

Sydney Friday 10th April 21.00h.

Currently my group is interested, that during the NASA Orion press conferences, nothing, no mention was made and no press questions were asked from the audience, about the Chinese settlement and their intentions regarding the Moon.

We think all those questions were banned. Before all NASA press conferences, reporters were told not to ask those questions, when obviously all the world wanted to know what the Orion crews information and opinions were. Eg: Did you see the Chinese settlement? Was Orion programmed to fly past avoiding the Chinese settlement? Did you receive any signals from the Chinese?
And more.

The Orion crews answers would lead to many more press questions, some embarrassing NASA and they don’t want any of that, so all Chinese questions were banned. Fair enough and there is another NASA YouTube program dealing with the Chinese intentions.

A few retired friends and I can easily recall the 1969 Moon landing and the excitement is still there for all of us. At each of our homes, mostly we’re sitting up till the early hours of the morning watching not only the NASA Live channel but many of their other channels as well.

57 years later, NASAs scientific advances were expected, and they a-r-e amazing.

When you eventually read this, Orion’s return was the world’s most watched tv event ever, with it landing safely in the Pacific and with the 4 crew home for debriefing and a well deserved rest. Cheers.

no mention was made and no press questions were asked from the audience, about the Chinese settlement and their intentions regarding the Moon.

Chinese settlement on the moon? Exactly what is that? Sounds like a clear violation of the treaty that President Eisenhower signed with the Grey Aliens in 1954.

Hi Boyd. That’s interesting I’ve never heard of that treaty, so I looked it up on a few sites and basically this is the conclusion … ‘There is no empirical evidence to support that this treaty ever existed; it is considered a piece of modern mythology within conspiracy circles.’ But then you probably know that and it’s a bit of fun, sorry it’s Sunday morning and I’m still a bit tired from all this NASA business.

Re the Chinese on the moon, I’ve seen the term ‘settlement’ used a lot so I used it. I asked Al … While currently in the robotic phase (with missions like Chang'e 6, 7, and 8), the long-term Chinese goal is to have a sustainable human presence, making "settlement" or "base" an accurate description of their objective.

In many cases AI is a worry but it can be useful. Have you seen the free DuckDuckGo, good to have 2 search engines readily available. Cheers.

I just love that they upgraded to the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O) laser based data link, enabling all the mission data to be downloaded before they made it back to the earth. Why yes, of course, they had every confidence in that heat shield. :-)

Andrew

And what a mine of data NASA has to work with, including the problem that the heat from the flash from one of their camera’s flash lights set the smoke alarms off. I believe that and the toilet was the only problems they had.

NASAs elation with this Artemis II Moon mission is not only because it’s the last successful Artemis mission, it’s because it’s the first of a manned series to build a settlement on the Moons surface.

But then you probably know that and it’s a bit of fun

You don't think I'm serious? Eisenhower's own granddaughter Laura is the chief proponent of that theory. And I also saw it on "Ancient Aliens", an authoritative source that is beyond question.

I don't think the Chinese have anything that could be called a "settlement" on the moon, but it's a well-established fact that aliens built bases on the moon which the Apollo astronauts saw and NASA covered up. I saw that on "Ancient Aliens" too.

(Note for anyone not accustomed to my sarcasm: yes I'm joking. However there really are people who believe this stuff. How about you?)

Don’t worry we gotcha Boyd :)

Here’s a very interesting UFO story that still doesn’t have an answer. This is what these people and many others actually saw 60 years ago, here’s the story …

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-06/westall-ufo-mystery-witnesses-want-answers/106126614

Yes, I'm familiar with that incident and a similar one from 1994

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-57749238

There's a documentary by James Fox that covers these and other UFO sightings. Not a bad history of UFO's in general

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13095604/

There are many unexplained things that I would like to understand. People like James Fox (who produced that film and others), George Knapp, Leslie Kean,Nick Pope, etc. have some compelling stories but they're really close to the conspiracy theory line, so I just don't know. Others like Luis Elizondo, Chris Mellon and Jacques Vallee are (arguably) a little more grounded. Vallee in an interesting one, he was the model for the French scientist in "Close Encounters". I mean, being portrayed by Francois Truffaut in a Spielberg movie is pretty cool, no matter who you are! I recently watched a documentary about the making of "Close Encounters" and the thing that really struck me was how *young* Spielberg was back then - he looked like a kid!

Vallee became a friend of J. Allen Hynek who spent years debunking UFO's for the Air Force's "Project Bluebook". After leaving that job though, Hynek became a believer himself and was very outspoken about it.

It's hard (probably impossible) for ordinary people like us to understand what's really going on here. I guess I'd be a "believer" if I saw one of these things myself. But I haven't. And the problem is that there's just so much misinformation out there, it's hard to trust anyone.

I recently watched some of this series from NY Post reporter Steven Greenstreet on some obscure streaming channel. He does a good job of debunking many of the UFO stories. But my problem is, the more you watch, he's a rather unpleasant person while the "UFOlogists" he attacks are generally a lot of fun. I just view it all as "entertainment" and take it with a grain of salt, so I would rather watch them than Greenstreet.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10417598/

Luis Elizondo is another interesting character, he hosted this show that I thought was quite good initially. But after the first season, it drifted into more questionable topics IMO.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10016814/

Recently, Elizondo seems to have gotten more weird, but I still enjoy watching him. But before investigating UFO's he was involved with counter intelligence in the military. So that just has to make you wonder how much of any of this stuff is real. In the end, I keep asking myself who would benefit from convincing the public that UFO's are real when they really aren't?

I have no idea, but like I said, it's all just entertainment for me. And, frankly, it's a lot more fun than most of the *real* news in today's world...

I would wager that "involved with counter intelligence in the military" is the key here.

If mere citizens had spotted something that doesn't officially exist yet then there is a role for a 'spoiler' to come in and give out a little more info that is correct and then slowly add in increasing levels of misinformation and distraction until the whole 'ufo' etc movement can be painted as a bunch of crazies.

There's plenty of weird stuff out there, but having the time to delve into it is another matter entirely.

Andrew

Thanks, all fascinating stuff Boyd, and it keeps going Andrew.

There are 3 groups of UFO people, those who claim to have seen one, those who haven’t and those who debunk all claims.

Many of the first group have a clear memory of their UFO sighting, maybe they made a sketch or shot a photo and they won’t hear one single negative word from the naysayers.

The second group pay attention to every UFO sighting, study the details, discuss it with their family and friends - but still can’t make head or tail of it.

The third group instantly trash every UFO claim, some loudly in the press. Many others think they just want the publicity, to get their name in the news as often as they can to promote their cause.

However all 3 groups keep the UFO story going and one day we might get to know what UFOs actually are and maybe where they come from. Cheers.