Fakery in Orbit: THE I$$

If NASA faked the moon landings, does the agency have any credibility at all? Was the Space Shuttle program also a hoax? Is the International Space Station another one? Do not dismiss these hypotheses offhand. Check out our wider NASA research and make up your own mind about it all.
lux
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by lux »

FYI there is a material called aerogel, one of the lightest known solids and its cousin, SEAgel which can be manufactured so that it is lighter than air.


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoCAxS4vqwQ
From the above video's caption:
This is the lighter than air solid developed in the 1980s, based on agar, a derivative of seaweed.
During manufacture, the internal foam space can be filled with a variety of gasses, including helium or hydrogen and the material is then shrink wrapped to prevent leakage.
There is also now a metal that is even lighter than aerogels:
http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-lightest-s ... 09070.html

NASA is very involved in aeorgel technology:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/f ... ogels.html

It looks possible to me that some of the solid objects we see floating in the ISS videos could be made of these substances. The floating effect might also be enhanced by mixing in a heavy gas with the air that the ass-tro-nots are located in. This technology, plus CGI, video compositing and "wire work," might comprise the range of weightless effects that we're seeing in these videos.
hoi.polloi
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by hoi.polloi »

Looks to me like pure CGI bubble. And not sure about her 'refraction' or mirror image in there either. Looks like a copy of the video with "goo" effect. Anyway, is this how liquid would behave in a sheer drop or zero-g environment - staying in a bubble like a gel or balloon, with no random droplets escaping save for one oversized drop making an adventure from the straw, "bouncing" (?) off the shirt, then exiting stage left? I thought liquids loved going everywhere they can go - must be some thick air up in the ISS to keep a rapidly spinning blob in a seemless egg shape and a perfectly intact magic friend droplet careening about.

Does that chain actually look right on her neck? Do the grooves of her neck look okay with it? And I just noticed her earrings sticking straight out but not much movement with some of her head movements. They are attached oddly. Strings? Static? Something else keeping them from having natural earring tension parallel to the ear instead of semi-perpendicular?

She's like a magician's assistant - even making the "shh" symbol putting her finger to her lips just before wiping her mouth. It's like a magic show but not as interesting - using video is just plain cheating.
lux
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by lux »

^ Yes, the water blob is surely CGI. The image of Cady that it contains seems quite fake and doesn't match her movements. It also has no mouth.
nonhocapito
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by nonhocapito »

If you look at the video, she goes on drinking up the whole thing, to impress her public like a good trained circus monkey.

Here's the blob upside down:

Image
lux
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by lux »

Here is another springy-haired ISS ass-tro-not, Sunita Williams, from November 2012:


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doN4t5NKW-k

This is what her hair normally looks like:
Image
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/scienc ... 642596.ece
nonhocapito
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by nonhocapito »

lux wrote:Here is another springy-haired ISS ass-tro-not, Sunita Williams, from November 2012:


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doN4t5NKW-k
OK she obviously is wearing some kind of hair spray to make them stand up like that. No way thin smooth hair would become that rigid upstanding mass. I imagine hair, light as it is and subject to different forces with every movement of her body, would rather behave like in water, coming in front of her face all the time, which is why no astronaut would ever be allowed to wear them like that.

That said, those sequences where they move around from module to module are pretty amazing. Even if not the first one of its genre, only for those sequences the video is a must see, because it shows that it isn't always easy to call NASA's bluffs. If the actors are hanging with wires here, good job hiding and editing out the whole contraption.

I wonder, maybe as they move, they are hanged in a vertical tunnel, and the person with the camera is hanging above the actornaut. This would allow all the sides of the tunnel to be untouched by the wires contraption. Although there are many sequences of moving down, up and turning back that don't seem so easily done with just wires.
lux
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by lux »

This video shows what real weightless long hair looks like (in a zero G aircraft).
It starts at about 2:00


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37XEjuSKZEk

Looks very different than in the ISS videos. It flows and moves all around, including down around the shoulders.

The more I look at this video the sillier the hair in the ISS videos appears.
nonhocapito wrote:
That said, those sequences where they move around from module to module are pretty amazing. Even if not the first one of its genre, only for those sequences the video is a must see, because it shows that it isn't always easy to call NASA's bluffs. If the actors are hanging with wires here, good job hiding and editing out the whole contraption.
Yes, I agree.
I wonder, maybe as they move, they are hanged in a vertical tunnel, and the person with the camera is hanging above the actornaut. This would allow all the sides of the tunnel to be untouched by the wires contraption. Although there are many sequences of moving down, up and turning back that don't seem so easily done with just wires.
I've wondered the same thing. They may use a number of different methods depending on the situation.

They could have some elaborate mechanisms attached to the actors and simply erase them digitally.

This all too brief explanation of how the "Big Bang Theory" ISS episode was shot says:
"It was done by supporting the people from underneath," Shaffner revealed. "There was a very long, sort of skinny platform that a person could lie on and it would almost look like they were swimming through in weightlessness."
Farcevalue
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by Farcevalue »

nonhocapito wrote:
lux wrote:
And here's another special effect:

Image

Nothing new, but is still remarkable how they make the whole staged thing work. Apparently this was live on TV too. But was she, really? Very Doubtful...
This is very poorly executed chroma key, an obviously two dimensional layer of a completely different color temperature, imposed on the video of the lady with the immovable hair. The perspective of the image inside the bubble doesn't change as she moves toward it. It should be rotating as the distance narrows, and it only stretches on one side. Why would floating water collect into a single ball? Are there no drops that have escaped into the "cabin"? It's not at all convincing. This GIF alone should be enough to tumble the whole shaky house of cards.
Starbucked
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by Starbucked »

In the Bubble gif, there appears to be a row of lights behind, and on both sides of Cosmomilf's Bedspring Hair, extending in a straight line where that circular object she is floating in front of is. The devil is in the details, NASA.

And why , in the Christmas on the ISS video, is the resolution so fuzzy? Did the regular Special Effects crew have the Xmas break off? Need to hide less than perfect work? That's my guess.
nonhocapito
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by nonhocapito »

A polite request to everyone:

When you see an interesting GIF, please watch the video it is taken from. The GIF is purely a reference.

In the above case of the water bubble the video is of a good quality, so the actual accuracy of a special effect can only be judged watching the source; furthermore, in the video, we are not just shown the bubble for a few seconds: the bubble is created from a container of water, after which the actressnaut proceeds drinking the whole thing.

Besides, if you take the time to watch the video, you might notice a whole lot of things that are more interesting or absurd than this bubble.

Once again, it cannot and should not be automatically easy to call NASA's bluffs so let's not expect it to be.

ALSO: When you watch or download one of these videos from youtube, make sure to select the highest quality available. Sometimes it makes a whole lot of difference:

Image
lux
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by lux »

Here's another ISS water bubble:


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s63JXdsL5LU
hoi.polloi
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by hoi.polloi »

This is too weird - even the face-plant doesn't cause the water to lose any droplets at all - like it's a cohesive blob forever.

And again with the singular wandering small blob bouncing around the stage. No, I don't believe it. It's absurd. And the convenient "wipe away" with a towel. Ridiculous.

Why didn't he blow bubbles in it with his nose and show us some real particle effects - give Pixar or whoever did it a bit more of a challenge?
resolution
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by resolution »

Bubbles filled with air have shadows (albeit faint ones). Surely a water bubble would cast a shadow, especially when in close proximity to an object?
lux
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by lux »

i like how the little bubble magically flies across to the big bubble:

Image
lux
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Re: Fakery in Orbit: THE ISS

Unread post by lux »

ISS asstronot Cady Coleman explains that people in space lose bone mass (called osteoporosis) at 10 times the rate of the average osteoporotic woman on Earth but also says, “I came back with literally no bone loss.”

Gosh, Cady, I guess you're just lucky, huh?


full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsj__C7cQak
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