Debunked: Apollo 10 "Space Music"

Update: This was explained many years ago, and was simply interference between the Lunar Module's and command module's VHF radios creating a strange whistling sound.


To briefly summarize the article: it seems that astronauts aboard Apollo 10 heard strange theremin-style noises which they were recorded referring to as 'Outer-space-type music' while blocked from Earth's radio transmissions by the Moon. The writer heavily implies that extraterrestrial radio transmissions are the best explanation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...ned-music-at-moon_us_56c80662e4b0928f5a6c0679

The Huffington Post is not above insinuating that extraterrestrial radio transmissions are the likeliest explanation.... But what do members here make of this? What could the noises have been?

 

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=11137134#post11137134

Does anybody have a copy of the book to confirm this?

 

So the apollo 11 crew knew what to expect and actually heard about the same noise. The radio technicians had an explanation for it. Now in the Huffington post apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden, when asked about this, seems to have been unaware of it:

And:

I wonder why the apollo 15 crew apparently did not know of this sound and its explanation. Had the technicians fixed it in the mean time?

 

So perhaps it WAS Pink Floyd?

 

Perhaps they found a way to mute the sound when doing the ranging, like a squelch.

 

I found a copy of Michael Collins' book at the library. In this edition the quote is on page 413.




The corresponding conversation can be found on Day 5 page 171 of the Apollo 11 transcripts.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/apollo11.htm

NASA released a statement a few hours, ago.

http://nasa.tumblr.com/post/139801679204/apollo-10-audio-publicly-available-since-1970s

 

It's almost as if someone was trying to whip up interest in a TV programme or something by using internet forums as free viral marketing...

 

Here's the Science Channel program about this:

It says Al Worden doesn't agree with the radio theory.

 

Where does he say he doesn't agree with with the radio theory? The only specific mention he makes of radio is being out of radio contact with Earth. The rest of it is disjointed edits of responses to questions we haven't heard.

The noise is caused by interference in the communications between the LM & CSM, and while Al Worden may not have heard of the explanation everyone else involved is happy that it was the VHF ranging system that was being employed.

 

The narrator says so in Part 2 at 1:52.

 

I'd like to know if the producers or writers of the show even attempted to speak, to Cernan, Stafford, or Young?

 

I doubt it. It's easier to edit for alternate theories with secondhand accounts. Firsthand witnesses can say "it was this". Others are more likely to give a range of explanations.

I've come to hate Discovery Networks.