Another Big Climate Lie: Outer Space is ‘Cold’

To encourage belief in the man-made global warming narrative pseudo scientists require that the ignorant and uninformed among us first buy into their lie than outer space is cold. Why? Because if we buy into ‘cold outer space’ then we are nicely set up to be duped by the nonsense that earth’s atmosphere ‘keeps us warmer than we would otherwise be.’

The narrative of these pseudo scientists is that ‘greenhouse gases’ are ‘trapping’ heat and/or ‘delaying cooling of our atmosphere otherwise, if they didn’t, we would all freeze our butts off because ‘cold’ outer space is ‘freezing.’ And all those nasty ‘carbon emissions’ we pump out living our industrialized western lives adds more ‘greenhouse gas heating’ to the mix. (All utter BS)

So, am I saying outer space isn’t cold after all? No, I’m not saying it! NASA, Boeing and the entire Apollo Moon Mission applied scientists and engineers are! They tell us space is like the vacuum of a Thermos flask (see image) – the perfect storage container to keep liquids hot (or cold) for long periods.

For example, Geoffrey A. Landis who is a space scientist at the NASA John Glenn Research Center working on Mars missions and “advanced concepts and technology for future space missions” makes a definitive clarification:

“A few recent Hollywood films showed people instantly freezing solid when exposed to vacuum. In one of these, the scientist character mentioned that the temperature was “minus 273”– that is, absolute zero.

But in a practical sense, space doesn’t really have a temperature– you can’t measure a temperature of a vacuum, something that isn’t there. The residual molecules that do exist aren’t enough to have much of any effect. Space isn’t “cold,” it isn’t “hot”, it really isn’t anything.

What space scientists are trying to tell climate scientists is that climate science is misrepresenting space science to prop up a dying climate cult built on junk science. Shockingly, there are even some skeptics of man-made global warming who are acting like ‘useful idiots’ to keep alive the Big Lie. These useful idiots must believe that carbon dioxide (CO2) is a ‘magic gas.’ Why?  Because in applied science and industry it is well known that the best COOLING gas used for most of the last century in manufacturing industry is CO2. It works extremely well as a refrigerant gas (in air conditioners, industrial cooling processes) because it emits heat almost instantly – most other gases don’t even come close in losing heat. But in the topsy-turvy, crazy world of climate science CO2 suddenly does the very opposite. In climatecrazyland the CO2 in the atmosphere keeps the air ‘warmer than it should be.’ In their world of sky dragons and unicorns this is the cornerstone of the greenhouse gas theory.

A prominent defender of the greenhouse gas effect (GHE) is climatologist, Dr Roy Spencer. Spencer has been backed in his beliefs by a fellow scientist, Lubos Motl. Like other greenhouse gas promoters they talk of a CO2 ‘blanket effect.’ Both men insist our atmosphere, because of the CO2 in it, acts like a blanket which keeps more heat in and/or delays cooling. They don’t see that it isn’t any ‘blanket effect’ but rather a ‘Thermos flask effect’ in operation – because the vacuum of space inhibits the loss of earth’s heat to space. When Motl and Spencer were asked the following question: “But do we agree that the vacuum of space inhibits heat energy loss?” Motl replied, “Not really.”

And anyone who reads Roy Spencer’s Yes, Virginia…can adduce that Spencer truly believes that vacuum space is cold, because unlike Pierre Latour’s No, Virginia…debunk, Spencer did not feel the need to add quotation marks on the word ‘cold.’

To Spencer, Motl and other greenhouse gas believers it is physics – just climate cult style, you see.

Space Scientists Say Climatologists Wrong About Space Science

It is this erroneous “blanket effect” that is the crux of GHE faux physics and the cause of the current disconnect in understanding between climate science analysts and the REAL experts – astrophysicists and space engineers.  What space is, though, is a very good insulator. (In fact, vacuum is the secret behind thermos bottles.) Astronauts tend to have more problems with overheating than keeping warm”

Apollo 17 Lunar Rover Dangerously Overheats in Spencer’s “Cold” Outer Space

NASA’s Apollo 17 moon mission offers a superb demonstration of how, during an unfortunate accident, the vacuum of space acted as a perfect insulator almost causing the moon mission to be aborted. This was due to over-heating of the Moon Rover. This novel four-wheeled, two-astronaut vehicle was driven for three days on the lunar surface becoming increasingly caked in dust reducing the effectiveness of it’s heat-dissipating design.

Moon Rover’s batteries dangerously over-heated because a fender had broken off exposing the carefully designed reflective surfaces such that they became dust-covered and could no longer effectively dissipate the build up of received solar energy. As NASA’s Mission Summary shows, only an emergency remedial fix rectified this potential catastrophe (see photo showing repaired fender).

This over-heating problem in the temperature-free vacuum of space also impacted the astronauts. Their carefully designed heat dissipating suits also had to be constantly wiped clean of the moon’s heat-absorbing dust.

Boeing Corporation & ISS Show Space is not ‘Cold’

But then consider the approach of the Boeing Corporation, leaders in the field of designing specialist equipment for the International Space Station (ISS). Boeing has to specifically address the constant problem of heat build up in the ISS due to the perfect insulating properties of vacuum space that Roy and his GHE religionists would have you believe is “cold.”

Boeing space station engineers tell us:

“The IATCS is a closed loop system that provides a constant coolant supply to equipment, payloads and avionics to maintain proper temperature….The radiator panels reject the excess heat to space via two non-articulating EEATCS radiator ORUs: one AFT (Trailing) and one Starboard (Normal). The two radiator ORUs are located on the P6 Long Spacer Truss Segment. The radiator measures 10.24 feet (3.12 meters) by 44.62 feet (13.6 meters)….The EATCS allows the flow of ammonia through heat rejection radiators that constantly rotate to optimize cooling for the station.” [emphasis added]

Did you get that? The build up of heat in the international space station is such a problem those huge heat exchangers (44.62 ft x 10.24) seen extending outwards from the body of the space craft are essential to COOL the space craft.  So how come spacecraft need to be cooled if space is already extremely cold (minus 270 degrees, say pseudo scientists). NASA then admits, in its ‘Staying Cool in Space’ web page that the “ISS needs huge radiators to get rid of its excess heat.” So much for the ‘cold’ of space!

Such propagandists and ‘fake news’ peddlers for the ‘greenhouse gas’ religion just don’t want to heed what Boeing’s ‘Active Thermal Control System (ATCS)’ or NASA experts like Landis are telling them.

Indeed, if Spencer and Motl insist on sticking to the fallacy that outer space is extremely “cold” and light from the sun is “hot,” then it would be concomitant that the temperature of sunlight would quickly deteriorate as it passes through space. Yes, the ENERGY of sunlight does decline with distance, but this is simply due to the inverse square law. An added temperature effect would invalidate that law, but nothing of the sort has been observed. This suggests either that space has no temperature or that light has no temperature. Or both.

Now it was put to Lubos (and Roy) that absent a better explanation from them, such evidence proves the point that vacuum space inhibits heat energy loss from Earth and this directly impacts what they have misinterpreted as the greenhouse gas effect. This is because the built-in fallacy of this ‘theory’ is that so-called greenhouse gases act like a ‘blanket’ to keep our planet’s surface warmer than it would otherwise be. But the whole time what is actually happening is that our dynamic ‘wet’ atmosphere is working (in day time) to keep our planet cooler than it would otherwise be, very much like those ATCS’s designed by Boeing. Otherwise, without our atmosphere, the average day time temperature on Earth would rival that of our moon (around 107°C (225°F)).

But greenhouse gas theory defenders don’t appear to want to learn from space science experts. Roy Spencer’s  Alabama Two Step dodge has been endorsed by WUWT’s Anthony Watts as the final word on the matter. It appears Watts, Spencer and Motl think they know better than NASA Apollo mission and International Space Station applied scientists and engineers.

Read also:

Roy Spencer and the Vacuum Bottle Flask, Alberto Miatello (February 2012)

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John O’Sullivan is the co-founder and coordinator of Principia Scientific International

 

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