Jarrah White
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| − | White accepts donations via his Moonfaker website<ref>http://www.moonfaker.com/donations.html</ref>. He also runs a "Paypal fundraise"[sic] entitled Fly Jarrah to the Moon<ref>http://www.moonfaker.com/fly-jarrah-to-the-moon.html</ref>, in which he "encourages propagandists and everyone who believes in Apollo to raise $500,000 to pay for himself and an accompanying believer to take this proposed tourist flight". | + | White accepts donations via his Moonfaker website<ref>http://www.moonfaker.com/donations.html</ref>. He also runs a "Paypal fundraise"[sic] entitled Fly Jarrah to the Moon<ref>http://www.moonfaker.com/fly-jarrah-to-the-moon.html</ref>, in which he "encourages propagandists and everyone who believes in Apollo to raise $500,000 to pay for himself and an accompanying believer to take this proposed tourist flight". What Mr. White doesn't tell us on that page is that the $500,000 price tag was a projection for decades into the future. In his first twenty-one "Fly Jarrah White to the Moon" YouTube videos, the price tag he was trying to meet was $200,000,000, which was later inflated to $300,000,000. (That's million, not thousand.) Similar guess-a-number-and-departure-date shenanigans are involved in Jarrah's claim that "Private company Space Adventures is offering tourists a flight around the moon aboard the Soyuz for $150,000,000US." If or when {{wpl|Space Adventures}} can or will launch is somewhat obscure,<ref>[http://www.spaceadventures.com/experiences/circumlunar-mission/ As of February 2015, the company claims it will be in 2018], but as recently as [http://web.archive.org/web/20140907002312/http://www.spaceadventures.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Lunar.welcome September 7th, 2014, the launch was expected to be in 2017], so don't hold your breath.</ref> and there has been doubts whether the company actually has the hardware necessary to complete the flight.<ref>[http://astronautix.com/craft/dsealpha.htm#more ''Encyclopedia Astronautica''] doubts whether the Russian materiel used by ''Space Adventures'' can manage a moon trip. Worse, in June 2014 news surfaced that the Russian partner [http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/roscosmos-disavows-plan-to-send-space-tourists-to-moon/502381.html ''"Roscosmos Disavows Plan to Send Space Tourists to Moon"''].</ref> "After twenty-two video "updates," covering a period of over three years, he had raised less than $500 for what he ordains as "my noble cause". He asserts that he firmly believes he will be able to raise the money. At that rate it will take him over 3000 years to meet just the projected half-million dollar fare. |
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| + | YouTube Apollo defender, Astrobrant2, challenged White concerning his belief that the Van Allen belts would kill anyone travelling to the moon. Jarrah bravely stated that he would gladly sacrifice his life for the truth. It may be safe to assume that he will die right here on earth without ever having to show his cards on that claim. | ||
White has also apparently taken over the sales side of the late [[Ralph René]]'s website. For example, a 12-page pamphlet explaining that pi is equal to 3.146264<ref>http://ralphrene.com/circle_squared.html</ref> is available for $14 by emailing Jarrah White. | White has also apparently taken over the sales side of the late [[Ralph René]]'s website. For example, a 12-page pamphlet explaining that pi is equal to 3.146264<ref>http://ralphrene.com/circle_squared.html</ref> is available for $14 by emailing Jarrah White. | ||
Revision as of 08:13, 2 March 2015
| Some dare call it |
| Secrets revealed! |
| The revealers |
Jarrah White (born 1980) is an Australian conspiracy theorist known mostly for his long-running series of YouTube videos claiming that the Moon landings were hoaxed. In addition to the MoonFaker videos, he also maintains a website with the same name and his beliefs about the hoax have led him to a few confrontations with notable skeptics on and off the Internet. He likes to style himself "Grandson of the Apollo Moon Hoax Theory".
Contents |
Beliefs and methods
Most of White's "evidence" appears to be borrowed from earlier conspiracy theorists, notably Ralph René, with whom White claims to have become friends prior to René's death. White has reproduced many of René's calculations and theories in his own videos, perpetuating basic errors attributable to René's lack of understanding of basic mathematical and scientific concepts.
Credentials and background
According to the biography on White's website, he "holds Certificate III & IV with distinctions in Screen (a Film & TV course) at Sydney Institute of TAFE", which would explain why his videos have better production values than the average webcam-shot YouTube dreck. He also claims to be studying for a BSc in astrophysics.
He has been posting YouTube videos in his "Moonfaker" series since 2007, but the earliest record of his Apollo obsession on the world wide web dates back to 2003, when he was an active member (later banned) of The Technodrome,[1] a discussion board dedicated to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Business activities
White accepts donations via his Moonfaker website[2]. He also runs a "Paypal fundraise"[sic] entitled Fly Jarrah to the Moon[3], in which he "encourages propagandists and everyone who believes in Apollo to raise $500,000 to pay for himself and an accompanying believer to take this proposed tourist flight". What Mr. White doesn't tell us on that page is that the $500,000 price tag was a projection for decades into the future. In his first twenty-one "Fly Jarrah White to the Moon" YouTube videos, the price tag he was trying to meet was $200,000,000, which was later inflated to $300,000,000. (That's million, not thousand.) Similar guess-a-number-and-departure-date shenanigans are involved in Jarrah's claim that "Private company Space Adventures is offering tourists a flight around the moon aboard the Soyuz for $150,000,000US." If or when Space Adventures[wp] can or will launch is somewhat obscure,[4] and there has been doubts whether the company actually has the hardware necessary to complete the flight.[5] "After twenty-two video "updates," covering a period of over three years, he had raised less than $500 for what he ordains as "my noble cause". He asserts that he firmly believes he will be able to raise the money. At that rate it will take him over 3000 years to meet just the projected half-million dollar fare.
YouTube Apollo defender, Astrobrant2, challenged White concerning his belief that the Van Allen belts would kill anyone travelling to the moon. Jarrah bravely stated that he would gladly sacrifice his life for the truth. It may be safe to assume that he will die right here on earth without ever having to show his cards on that claim.
White has also apparently taken over the sales side of the late Ralph René's website. For example, a 12-page pamphlet explaining that pi is equal to 3.146264[6] is available for $14 by emailing Jarrah White.
Moonfaker.com
White presents a long list of Frequently Asked Questions[7] on his website that are intended to supplement his videos; however these only serve to illustrate his basic lack of knowledge about space flight.
A few examples follow:
| Q: Weren’t there independent parties tracking Apollo all the way to the moon and back?
A: No. There are some known Ham radio operators who attest to having picked up signals from Apollo (Paul Wilson, Richard Knadle, Larry Baysinger, Sven Grahn), but none of them can attest to having tracked these probes all the way to the moon and back. Grahn for example only testifies to having picked up signals from Apollo 17 when it was in earth orbit, when it was on the moon and in lunar orbit. He openly admits to not tracking it the whole way there and back. |
Of course it would be impossible for any one individual to track the Apollo craft all the way from the Earth to the moon. The journey took approximately three days, during which time the moon would be below the horizon for great lengths of time for an observer in any given location on Earth. Hence the need for the Deep Space Network[wp] of receiving stations around the world to maintain constant contact.
| Q: What is the most compelling evidence that the moon missions were faked?
A: First, as demonstrated by James Van Allen’s own findings, the radiation belts that surround earth would have been lethal to astronauts. |
This is categorically untrue, as attested to by Dr Van Allen himself: "The recent Fox TV show, which I saw, is an ingenious and entertaining assemblage of nonsense. The claim that radiation exposure during the Apollo missions would have been fatal to the astronauts is only one example of such nonsense."
| Q: Could you see the artefacts (if they were there) with a telescope?
A: Although propagandists say that you can’t, Jarrah disagrees and can prove it. There is a simple formula that scientists use to determine the angular size of an object in space. (d ÷ D) x 206,265 = α Where d is the diameter of the object, D is the distance of the object and α is the resolution in arc-seconds. We know the lunar module is 4metres across and the moon is 380,000km away – or 380,000,000metres. So we plug those digits into the formula and get, (4 ÷ 380,000,000) x 203,265 = 0.002arc-seconds. So from this calculation, we know that we need a telescope with an angular resolution of 0.002arc-seconds. According to an ESO Press Release, scientists working at The Very Large Telescope (VLT) array in Chile “were able to see details on the scale of one milli-arcsecond, corresponding to being able to distinguish, from the Earth, the headlights of a car on the Moon”. 1 milli-arcsecond is 0.001arc-seconds. This means the Very Large Telescope is perfect to resolve man made equipment left behind on the lunar surface. |
Jarrah is deeply confused here. The press release he mentions is not talking about the visual capabilities of the VLT. It is talking about the VLTI, an interferometer set-up that combines the images from three VLT visual-light telescopes to gain information about very small, very distant objects. Such a set-up is only useful for point sources of light against a dark background (e.g., a star), and completely useless for imaging the lunar surface. He is comparing apples, (in daytime), to flashlights, (at night).
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Turtles on The Moon?, thread started by Jarrah White on 6 November 2004
- ↑ http://www.moonfaker.com/donations.html
- ↑ http://www.moonfaker.com/fly-jarrah-to-the-moon.html
- ↑ As of February 2015, the company claims it will be in 2018, but as recently as September 7th, 2014, the launch was expected to be in 2017, so don't hold your breath.
- ↑ Encyclopedia Astronautica doubts whether the Russian materiel used by Space Adventures can manage a moon trip. Worse, in June 2014 news surfaced that the Russian partner "Roscosmos Disavows Plan to Send Space Tourists to Moon".
- ↑ http://ralphrene.com/circle_squared.html
- ↑ Frequently Asked Questions