This is not the first time that some controversy has surfaced in regards to the Chinese Space Program. Now this video appears. Judge for yourself.
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It looks, strange but it doesn’t look like it was shot underwater to me. It looks too clear. Look at the shot that they use of astronauts training underwater for comparison. And I think that the “bubble” might actually just be debri.
[Comment deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
Just because everyone believes the Americans faked their moonshot and spacewalk, why do you now have to add the same reasoning to others?
Maybe this is so different because the Chinese did it properly? Maybe space really is this clear?
Earth not moving? Geostationary orbit – look at all the satellites that are up there, not moving.
The flag whips too quickly to be underwater. If the flag was in open air, it might “flap” slightly slower. If one thinks of space as a place that has very low density/viscosity air, then one would imagine a flag flaps very quickly when drawn to-and-from by the hand.
Everything else presented is too weak to support the author’s argument.
Tell you what, next time they launch, get the oribital ephemeris, put them into a program that gives the azimuth and elevation of the craft with respect to your position on earth (satellite toolkit for example), borrow some binoculars or telescope and look at the craft for yourself.
This age, in which someone can use a computer to waste multiple hours to create a flashy video to make a stupid statement, just amazes me.
#3
Geostationary orbit is a lot higher than man has gone since the moon landings.
It’s more likely that the spaceship and its orbit was oriented that way and any change in altitude would have been so small as to not have made any visible change in the position of the earth.
And on the quality of the pictures. I’m guessing that they used an HD camera which they then stored the high quality press release stuff on board some storage in the capsule for use when they returned to earth. Whereas the NASA examples the person uses are likely the compressed transmitted videos from NASA TV or something similar.
The only thing I can’t think of a plausible solution to is the thing that passed by the astronaut’s helmet. But I’m not going to jump to the conclusion of “IT”S UNDERWATER!!11!”
As to the “They don’t let go like the Russians and Americans” point. Guess who else don’t let go while on spacewalks these days? Yep, you guessed it, Russians and Americans. NASA doesn’t even carry the old MMU’s that they used years ago for the free floating spacewalks even if they do carry smaller emergnecy manuevering packs. And the chinese astronauts wouldn’t float away as just like all other astronauts they’re tethered to the spaceships.
The reflection off the mirrors? From the angle it’s likely something attached to the spaceship but the second camera shot the video shows doesn’t show the other side of the spaceship.
Then the person follows with a red herring that if they can’t hide these facts then they must’ve faked the spacewalk.
#4
It could be sped up footage, and they could have done a real orbital mission while still faking the spacewalk footage.
Normally I don’t buy into this sort of stuff, but the Chinese do have a habit of making crap up for PR purposes, and the fact that news stories leaked with very detailed descriptions of the entire flight two days before the launch makes it seem quite plausible.
oops, sorry, should never post before I’ve taken my meds.
Basically, erroneous and questionable conclusions. I always get a rise out of this stuff, cause the space program (anybodys) is important to me. I guess all the nay saying about the apollo missions left me negatively preconditioned. In other words it P’s me off!!
Does anyone really believe there were no telescopes observing the flight? No radar?
I don’t know. The bubbles really look odd.
But the flag movement for example looks pretty realistic for me, I can not imagine how these could happen in something as heavy as water. And he says “They are exactly as in water” – period.
And about the audio quality. WTF!? How stupid is this argument?
I can make calls this quality with Skype and VoIP around the world, why should heavyly funded space don;t have this kind of bandwidth? Maybe it pays off doing a space walk with 21. century technology! US and Russian communications technology are probably from the 80s and I’m sure they could have something better for a big media event. But why waste bandwith when it is all routine?
My suggestion is: the Chinese were water-pool rehearsing for their next big space achievement, than someone played with the tape. (such rehearsing would be done and video-taped for various obvious reasons)
The Chinese intentions do not have to be necesarilly malitious: there is always a lot of PR involved with the space programs, so someone might just want to see how the “big news” would look like.
The chinese don’t seem to be claiming a space-walk on either of their two space flights. (look up “Chinese space program” on wiki)
Yes, it’s a fake. I’m convinced.
What have the Chinese got to prove?
To anyone?
The flag moves as if no fluid of any kind impinges its surface.
The spacecraft’s solar panels rotate to track the sun as the craft orbits the earth.
The mirror seems to be reflecting an array of LEDs near the spacewalker; possibly stationed near the external video camera.
Looks like a real spacewalk to me.
*Nothing* in this video convinces me the chinese spacewalk was a fake. It’s all based in uneducated speculation and bad comparisons.
It’s amazing how low we, as a society, are going, since people are starting to believe we can’t even go to space. One day people will talk of the space and moonwalks as old legends. It’s time to start investing heavily in space again.
Blowing bubbles while wearing a spacesuit? EEEUUuuu!!!
jimbo…they have to prove to their own people they are just as advanced as the west.
I wonder if a new space program can really move as fast as the Chinese claim they have. Just getting into space is a big deal, and coming home to an intended location is a big deal too. But they jump many steps forward at once and suddenly they’re doing advanced spacewalks? Call me skeptical.
Bubbles going up is a problem. So is the earth below…spacecraft typically don’t use equatorial orbits, either.
As for NASA audio and video, that stuff travels through a complex satellite system before bouncing back to Houston. Limited bandwidth, quality is as good as it needs to be. No way the Chinese have that system yet, I wonder if we let them use ours? Probably not, which means they have comms issues. So if they really did this they would have to record such a thing locally.
Too many plausible issues with this video, IMHO. I think they’re faking it and NASA knows it.
It is plausible that they “advanced” this rapidly. Their technology was purchased from the Russians and stolen from the US.
#17, Mr. Baggins,
I wonder if a new space program can really move as fast as the Chinese claim they have.
I don’t see why not. Most of the heavy lifting has already been done plus we know publicly about it. Technology is many times better today than it was even when the Space Shuttle was designed, let alone the first people walking in space.
The Chinese had a space program 20 years ago, launching satellites. With so much technology now being mass produced in China, why couldn’t they?
It took the Americans just under 10 years to put a man on the moon with 1960s technology.
I’m not saying they did or even have the capability, but I don’t think it is outside the realm of possible.
#17
The audio from NASA has always sounded very single-side-bandy. Digital audio would use less bandwidth right?
Accepting the assessment that we are seeing bubbles clouds one’s view. I see debris, elongated in shape, in the iphone version of the video rather than air bubbles.
The USA went from Sputnik to first orbit in 4.5 years, before the age of calculators and computers on every desk. Given were they are economically, technically, and organizationally, it is credible that they could have achived this milestone.
#13 one thing to keep in mind. The Chinese hold that they are the most ‘civilized’ country in existance. 🙂 The communist party has stoked this belief.
I could well see this being a fake, but only NORAD knows for sure. 🙂
Point taken. I just hope that bubble was from an external air pocket. Because if his suit leaks it’s going to be a smelly trip home for the other dude.
But, why am I compelled to watch Apollo 13 every time it’s on cable? Looking for signs of gravity is fun, so is looking for shots filmed in that low-gravity plane.
“Audio quality”? WTF people, use your brain. That could easily be configured to sound like what ever you want. “Bandwidth”? WTF people? It could be a recorded and edited video, who said it was live from space…or at least proved it.
Geostat orbit? WTF people, that’s like 22,000 miles out.
The real question is the BUBBLE. “Just debris” would be frightening…considering the debris is moving at thousands of miles per hour. You do realize a paint flake in space and put a hole through a space craft, right?
What about the fact that the Chinese government posted a detailed press release on their web site, including details of how the launch went, and conversations between ground and craft…the day BEFORE the launch.
I have news for you…there are no peaceful missions to space. The Hubble space telescope, you can bet there is a duplicate with a different lens dimension pointed down. Apollo…great research for missile guidance.
This story really points out the complete lack of knowledge of physics and nature by most people..and the Chinese government.
Ducky,
Please tell me what you do so that I may avoid you, and your work, like the plague.
Living in Chinese culture, this does not surprise me at all; whatever works for the moment is what counts, fake it or lie or cheat… Who cares afterwards, right?! It served the purpose! Just like we do in politics in the West. The bubble was funny though – liquid space, that is a new one. :-))
#24 I work at the DMV.
What? Nobody has ever seen a fart released into space?!
a child’s play – walking on the milky way
Geeze, I remembered a debunking of this claim – and did a quick search, found it was last October.
The blogger is an astronomer, known for his debunking of ‘moon hoax’ believers (among other things), and reviews of various SciFi movies and their errors in science = thus, the Bad Astronomer.
Here’s the link to the blog post:
http://tinyurl.com/b9guhy
J/P=?
The people are fake not the space walk.
Then again the whole pre-scripting between the news and the astronomers can’t be debunked. That was just insanely stupid to prescript what to say before anything ever happened.