Monday 9 February 2009

Chinese Spacewalk Faked?

Was the Chinese spacewalk faked? I say no! But it's conspiracy time again. In September last year, the Chinese space program celebrated its first spacewalk. Colonel Zhai Zhigang, the mission commander, floated out of the orbital module's hatch, beamed live on China's state television service.

However, some Chinese bloggers have pointed out physics-defying phenomena in the news footage of its space walk that suggest the whole operation was filmed not in space, but under water.

13 comment(s):

nerds rule said...

its actually a possibility imo

Unknown said...

Ice particles, not bubbles!

Brian Kern said...

I must admit the video does pose quite a few questions. Does this perhaps signal another great episode for Discovery Channel's Mythbusters? In any event, I find China's credibility to be near zero after the whole Olympics fiasco (both the lipsyncing and the age issues of their gymnast.) Their government has been known to juggle the truth dramatically in order to provide better propaganda. I'd like to see an actual NASA or EU Space scientist take a look and offer up an opinion.

One point in favor of the Chinese is the crystal clarity of the environment. If it was under water, light only penetrates so far before certain wave lengths are absorbed. IF this was filmed under water, they would only be able to show closeups and use special lights.

Of course, there were only closeups, weren't there?

Dave said...

Has anyone here seen the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Clear Lake? I have. Huge. Something like this could have been faked in a tub that size.

Anonymous said...

The video looks wrong. But a spacewalk is pretty simple. Open the hatch and go out. It's only complicated when you actually try to do useful work. But you need good spacesuits.

Anonymous said...

We ARE talking about China.
I think it's fake.

Anonymous said...

It may be fake, but a VERY well made fake - typical Chinese...

Anonymous said...

No one ever explained how circa 1960's film survived in the radiation and temperatures of outerspace / the Moon to my satisfaction. Some technical issues may necessitate "simulations" even with today's better technology.

Richard Macgurn said...

Definitely a fake space walk. I watched the entire 19 minutes frame by frame with my CS3 film editor and found lots of bubbles and lots of digitally edited sections where bubbles were removed. The big giveaway is the buoyancy of the tether lines and the way the flag moves. Besides that it's easy to fake something like this in a NBL, just remove the extra blue tinge, and presto!

rdb said...

If they are bubbles they should all float directly upwards surely, they seem to vary in the direction in which they move, unless the craft is rotating under the water, but what would be the purpose of that? I have to say the apparent acceleration of the "bubbles" bothers me. It does seem a compelling video but the Apollo hoax theory seems compelling until you look into the science and take time to understand it. I wish someone could offer an alternative explanation to bubbles. Perhaps kct's ice particles?

Anonymous said...

To rdb:

That piece of debris was flying towards the camera. Besides, it's a rod-shaped solid piece.

Actually, I don't see anything wrong with the spacewalk video. To me, the Chinese did a successful and REAL spacwalk.

Anonymous said...

This is definitely faked or cannot be taken as credible evidence for a space walk. My argument is simple. If they have the technology to create CCTV cameras that take footage from multiple angles, why did they only use one angle outside the craft? I believe they only travelled in space, but not a spacewalk.

The strange look of the Earth, the horizon being too rounded, the tether floating "up", the trapped bubbles floating up is all a dead give away and so much more.

Communism fakes a lot of important achievements to boost their peoples sovereignty and morale and to some extent brainwash them. This is a historic fact and part of their political policy.

Anonymous said...

why do you suppose the videos of the spacewalk (the ones where we see bubbles and the reflection of stadium lights) are blocked from viewing in China?