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Apollo 12 "visitor" reference?


Patient Zero

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i was watching a video earlier (link at bottom) about distant lights in a photograph taken during the Apollo 12 mission.

At about 2m55s a clip is played where the astronauts refer to "visitor's" and being "hardly worth mentioning."

The narrator takes "visitor's" to mean extraterrestrials (shocking, yes, i know) and goes on about NASA being deceitful and the typical tin foil hat stuff we've heard before.

Out of curiosity, when not taken out of context, what were they referring to?

[ http://www.coasttocoastam.com/pages/watch-ufo-spotted-in-apollo-12-photo ]

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The "visitors" reference is from Apollo 14 when Shepard and Mitchell are deploying the MET - Modular Equipment Transporter. It was meant as a bit of a slight or inside joke in reference to their backup crew who had, as a prank, left Road Runner patches (a spoof of the Apollo 14 mission patch, see below) throughout the LM's equipment.

FYI - The image that is displayed in the video immediately before the "visitor" exchange is even labelled as from Apollo 14 in 1971.

Anyway... Here's the exchange and some context from the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal:

[Ed goes over to Al to help him set up the MET, which is currently folded up on itself. Ed stands between Al and the TV and blocks Houston's view of the deployment. He moves out of the way occasionally, but the images of the astronauts and the MET are so badly saturated that little useful detail is visible. An 8-mm film clip by Ed Dempsey (
) shows Al and Ed deploying the MET during training. Film clip courtesy Frederic Artner; digitized by Ken Glover.]

RealVideo Clip (2 min 01 sec)

115:02:18 Shepard: (To Ed) Okay. You ready? Get the wheels first.

115:02:27 Mitchell: Okay. (Pause) Wheels out, 180, gear down and locked.

115:02:42 Shepard: Both tires are inflated properly on the MET.

115:02:46 McCandless: Roger. Out. (Pause)

[unlike the Rovers of the later missions, which have wire-mesh tires, the MET has rubber tires inflated pre-flight to 1.5 psi (absolute) with nitrogen. Each of the tires is 16 inches in diameter and is 4 inches wide.]

115:02:52 Mitchell: Wait a minute. (Pause) Okay.

115:03:07 Shepard: Okay. Put it down. (Pause) Let's get the...(Pause) Deploy it while it's still up here. There we go.

[After unfolding the wheels, they have to lock the front legs and handle into place. NASA photo
shows the MET next to LM-8 at the Cape.]

115:03:24 Mitchell: Well, let's see...We've had visitors again.

115:03:28 Shepard: Yeah. Hardly worth mentioning.

115:03:33 Mitchell: Agree. (Pause)

[Jones - "I had heard that the backup crew had put greetings in lots of places on the spacecraft. Did you just find one on the MET?"]

[Mitchell - "I think what we're talking about there is one of their
, because they put the goddamn things all over the spacecraft and, whenever we opened up something, there would be one of them. It had a Roadrunner on it and was a parody of our patch."]

[The exchange 'Visitors...hardly worth mentioning,' is, of course, a very dry, joking dismissal of the backup crew.]

[Journal Contributor Andrew Chaikin wrote in his book
A Man On The Moon
, "Before the flight, Cernan's crew had devised a
featuring the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon characters. On it, the Coyote, representing Shepard's crew, reaches the moon only to find the Road Runner -- Cernan's crew -- is already there, waving a 'First Team' banner. Along the border was printed the Road Runner's trademark 'Beep Beep'. The
real
message was unfit for publication: 'Watch your ass -- we're right behind you.' During the flight, Shepard's crew discovered Road Runner patches in every notebook and storage locker in their two spacecraft. Even on the lunar surface, they couldn't escape: There, on the MET, was another 'Beep Beep'." (Used with permission.)]

[Journal Contributor Brian Lawrence has supplied a copy of the
and notes: "The backup crew (Roadrunner) are depicted waiting on the Moon for the prime crew (Wile E. Coyote) to arrive. The Coyote has red fur for Roosa, a pot belly for Mitchell, and a grey beard for Shepard."]

115:03:39 Shepard: Okay. Houston, as you can see, the MET is deployed properly.

115:03:45 McCandless: Roger.

115:03:49 Shepard: Looks like it's in good shape.

Road Runner patch (a.k.a. the Back Up Crew patch....)

a14.roadrunner.gif

Apollo 14 mission patch

270px-Apollo_14-insignia.png

There's also a page at the ALSJ specifically about this event and the Road Runner patch

Conspiracy sites and proponents absolutely love to cherry pick quotes and present them completely out of context.

Cz

Edited by Czero 101
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And in other ridiculous news, a seem ripped open in the Sun the other day revealing a secret alien base.

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The "visitors" reference is from Apollo 14 when Shepard and Mitchell are deploying the MET - Modular Equipment Transporter. It was meant as a bit of a slight or inside joke in reference to their backup crew who had, as a prank, left Road Runner patches (a spoof of the Apollo 14 mission patch, see below) throughout the LM's equipment.

FYI - The image that is displayed in the video immediately before the "visitor" exchange is even labelled as from Apollo 14 in 1971.

Anyway... Here's the exchange and some context from the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal:

Road Runner patch (a.k.a. the Back Up Crew patch....)

a14.roadrunner.gif

Apollo 14 mission patch

270px-Apollo_14-insignia.png

There's also a page at the ALSJ specifically about this event and the Road Runner patch

Conspiracy sites and proponents absolutely love to cherry pick quotes and present them completely out of context.

Cz

Absolute, top notch explanation/reply.

Thank you, my friend.

:tu:

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And in other ridiculous news, a seem ripped open in the Sun the other day revealing a secret alien base.

i'm tellin' ya!

Some of these off the wall conspiracy theories make me wonder, why?

Why don't these folks put this kind of effort into something worthwhile and meaningful?

i suppose to them, they believe they're doing just that...

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i'm tellin' ya!

Some of these off the wall conspiracy theories make me wonder, why?

Why don't these folks put this kind of effort into something worthwhile and meaningful?

i suppose to them, they believe they're doing just that...

My major issue with all this is that one day when a real conspiracy appears, it will slip under the radar because of all the conspiracy nutters who have polluted the internet with white noise.

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I want that patch!!!!

I have an Apollo 11 one, but that's a corker..

Added : Better pic and longer story here..

Edited by ChrLzs
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