ALSEP transmitters still working?

[Jonathan Silverlight]

Reading Ray Villard's article "Did NASA fake the Moon landing?" in the
July "Astronomy" I was interested to read that although the experiments
were turned off in the 1970s for budgetary reasons (I understand they
were also simply not returning useful data), the transmitters are still
working and still being used. That's very impressive for 1960s
technology, given how hostile the environment is there.

But I think there's a horrible mistake or typo.
"Ancient anthracites, lava basalts, and breccias".
Unless anthracite means something other than coal?
--

Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

[Henry Spencer]

In article >,
Jonathan Silverlight > wrote:
>Reading Ray Villard's article "Did NASA fake the Moon landing?" in the
>July "Astronomy" I was interested to read that although the experiments
>were turned off in the 1970s for budgetary reasons (I understand they
>were also simply not returning useful data), the transmitters are still
>working and still being used...

I think somebody has goofed. The ALSEP laser retroreflectors are still
in use -- they are non-electronic -- but as far as I know, nobody has
heard from the transmitters since they were turned off along with the
experiments on 30 Sept 1977.
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |

[bob haller]

>July "Astronomy" I was interested to read that although the experiments
>were turned off in the 1970s for budgetary reasons (I understand they
>were also simply not returning useful data), the transmitters are still
>working and still being used. That's very impressive for 1960s

I seriously doubt that. the nuclear fuel depleted and the experiments were
turned ff to prevent interference. I think your info is wrong, and without
experiments what would the transmitters be sending?
HAVE A GREAT DAY!

[Scott Hedrick]

"Henry Spencer" > wrote in message
...
> but as far as I know, nobody has
> heard from the transmitters since they were turned off along with the
> experiments on 30 Sept 1977.

Besides- 35+ years of thermal cycling should have done a number on the
electronics.

[OM]

On Sun, 13 Jun 2004 13:51:00 -0400, "Scott Hedrick"
> wrote:

>
>"Henry Spencer" > wrote in message
...
>> but as far as I know, nobody has
>> heard from the transmitters since they were turned off along with the
>> experiments on 30 Sept 1977.
>
>Besides- 35+ years of thermal cycling should have done a number on the
>electronics.

....Possibly. On the other hand, I've seen equipment that's survived 25
years of environmental exposure that, once you tossed the dead
batteries, replaced the contacts and popped in fresh ones, the damn
things worked. OTOH, I don't believe either EASEP or ALSEP were
equipped with any sort of "re-on" switch. Once they were turned off,
that was it.


OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

[Jonathan Silverlight]

In message >, Henry Spencer
> writes
>In article >,
>Jonathan Silverlight > wrote:
>>Reading Ray Villard's article "Did NASA fake the Moon landing?" in the
>>July "Astronomy" I was interested to read that although the experiments
>>were turned off in the 1970s for budgetary reasons (I understand they
>>were also simply not returning useful data), the transmitters are still
>>working and still being used...
>
>I think somebody has goofed. The ALSEP laser retroreflectors are still
>in use -- they are non-electronic -- but as far as I know, nobody has
>heard from the transmitters since they were turned off along with the
>experiments on 30 Sept 1977.

Great. The moon-hoax proponents will love an article that makes
mistakes. Doing a bit of searching, I found he makes more mistakes, like
saying solar activity was at minimum when it was near maximum, and even
getting the number of missions wrong.
Not that it matters. The TV documentary I saw a few weeks ago said a
fairly high proportion of people in a poll believed the missions were
faked, but according to Villard only 5% of a Gallup poll in 1999 said it
was. (The number may have gone up since, of course). That may be the
percentage estimated to be intoxicated at any given time, but IIRC it's
also the number in a poll who will answer "yes" to _any_ question.

[Harald Kucharek]

Henry Spencer wrote:
> In article >,
> Jonathan Silverlight > wrote:
>
>>Reading Ray Villard's article "Did NASA fake the Moon landing?" in the
>>July "Astronomy" I was interested to read that although the experiments
>>were turned off in the 1970s for budgetary reasons (I understand they
>>were also simply not returning useful data), the transmitters are still
>>working and still being used...
>
>
> I think somebody has goofed. The ALSEP laser retroreflectors are still
> in use -- they are non-electronic -- but as far as I know, nobody has
> heard from the transmitters since they were turned off along with the
> experiments on 30 Sept 1977.

I've heard from the Tidbinbilla guys that they used ALSEP transmitters
for tracking training purposes after that date, until the late 80's, IIRC.

Harald

[bob haller]

>
>I've heard from the Tidbinbilla guys that they used ALSEP transmitters
>for tracking training purposes after that date, until the late 80's, IIRC.
>
>Harald
>
>

so they turned off the experiments but left the carrier. now how dumb was that
HAVE A GREAT DAY!

[Henry Spencer]

In article >,
Harald Kucharek > wrote:
>> ...but as far as I know, nobody has
>> heard from the transmitters since they were turned off along with the
>> experiments on 30 Sept 1977.
>
>I've heard from the Tidbinbilla guys that they used ALSEP transmitters
>for tracking training purposes after that date, until the late 80's, IIRC.

Hmm, could well be. There's no good history of the ALSEPs, and it's not
uncommon for officially-defunct spacecraft to live on for a while as
engineering testbeds and such.
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |

[JimO]

As the ALSEP power packs degraded, they eventually dropped below the point
that they
could run the radio and any other instrument. This was about 1977-8.

The radio beacons were left on for any possible Earth-based tracking
experiments, until they too faded -- last
date of reception from any of them, I have no clue, but 1980's-ish sounds
reasonable.

The critical factor was that the ALSEP control room in the Bldg 30 MCC, on
the second floor, was shut down in early 1978
and converted to the 'Skylab Rescue' control room, which soon re-established
contact with the abandoned station and kept
contact through July 1979 when it attacked Australia.

[Jonathan Silverlight]

In message >, JimO
> writes
>
>As the ALSEP power packs degraded, they eventually dropped below the point
>that they
>could run the radio and any other instrument. This was about 1977-8.
>
>The radio beacons were left on for any possible Earth-based tracking
>experiments, until they too faded -- last
>date of reception from any of them, I have no clue, but 1980's-ish sounds
>reasonable.
>
>The critical factor was that the ALSEP control room in the Bldg 30 MCC, on
>the second floor, was shut down in early 1978
>and converted to the 'Skylab Rescue' control room, which soon re-established
>contact with the abandoned station and kept
>contact through July 1979 when it attacked Australia.

Thanks Jim. Rummaging through Google Groups I find you gave almost the
same answer about two years ago, when Henry Spencer announced the 25th
anniversary of the transmitters being shut down. I did think it was
unlikely. But Pioneer 6 was last contacted in December 2000, after 35
years!