"Fired" Apollo scientist Ken Johnston competing for seat on one-way Mars mission

He's on the latest whittled-down list of 1000 candidates.

We know him from such stories as

At the smithsonian
www.youtube.com...
Ken Johnston at the Smithsonian (1 of 2)


Fired NASA Employee Talks About A Crater On The Moon
www.youtube.com...

Here's his CV as written on the Mars program page
applicants.mars-one.com...

SELF INTRODUCTION
I was one of the first 4 Civilian Astronaut Pilots for Apollo Program. I logged over 3,000 hours as a space craft pilot and helped train the Astronauts how to fly the LM. I hold two BS degrees and two Doctorates. I am currently a Major in the Civil Air Patrol, plus 35 years in the Boy Scouts. I have trained pilots from all over the world and I like everyone no matter what their race religion creed or color. I build teams and am a team player and goal oriented. Lets go to MARS!
INTERESTS
I love working with people and challenges. I have done'0-G' and water training at NASA. I love Astronomy, geology, psychology, biology, archeology, camping and adventures. I like developing teams to accomplish goals. Metaphysics and science are my forte. I am what would be called a nexus.

Controversies aside, I think this is an inspiring program, and I'm sure we all wish him well.

reply to post by JimOberg


Maaaan, I wish I had some skill that would have been useful...

That would have been awesome going to Mars...

reply to post by JimOberg


There are too many characters in this novel to keep them all in mind...

Another whistleblower is Dr Ken Johnston who was a manager of NASA’s Data and Photo Control Department. Johnston claims that he also witnessed moon photos showing artificial structures and was asked to destroy the photos. He refused and was fired by NASA.

Apollo 11 photo reveals base on far side of moon

JimOberg
He's on the latest whittled-down list of 1000 candidates.

We know him from such stories as

At the smithsonian
www.youtube.com...
Ken Johnston at the Smithsonian (1 of 2)


Fired NASA Employee Talks About A Crater On The Moon
www.youtube.com...

Here's his CV as written on the Mars program page
applicants.mars-one.com...

SELF INTRODUCTION
I was one of the first 4 Civilian Astronaut Pilots for Apollo Program. I logged over 3,000 hours as a space craft pilot and helped train the Astronauts how to fly the LM. I hold two BS degrees and two Doctorates. I am currently a Major in the Civil Air Patrol, plus 35 years in the Boy Scouts. I have trained pilots from all over the world and I like everyone no matter what their race religion creed or color. I build teams and am a team player and goal oriented. Lets go to MARS!
INTERESTS
I love working with people and challenges. I have done'0-G' and water training at NASA. I love Astronomy, geology, psychology, biology, archeology, camping and adventures. I like developing teams to accomplish goals. Metaphysics and science are my forte. I am what would be called a nexus.

Controversies aside, I think this is an inspiring program, and I'm sure we all wish him well.

I wish him well as well. He's certainly qualified.

I doubt he makes it past the next round of cuts. The whole crew selection process is actually the weakest part of the plan. I initially applied before the application process was open to the general public and was accepted. But the more I looked at the whole Facebook popularity contest aspect of the crew selection process I realized the people who were likely to be voted in would be people who would do well on "reality TV".

My view is that the best reality TV show cast would make the worst Mars colonists.

One can not do this mission "Hunger Games" style and expect it to be a success.

I got the distinct impression that the people behind this don't understand that the people who make for great reality TV would make for a very bad Mars One crew.

Not long after I submitted my video I got a little spooked and felt like if I actually ended up going on to stage 2 or beyond there would be crap which would essentially make me have to 'dumb down' to progress.

I had a nightmare one night which went something like this:

I've jumped through the hoops and succeeded at booking my ticket to the red planet. I'm on the Mars One ship with 3 other "winners" who of course have been chosen for all the wrong reasons. There's unnecessary drama just 30 days out which naturally, for the good of the mission I chose to avoid only to get an encrypted communication from Mars One HQ:

Mars One: "Jade this is Mars One, hey, good job on defusing that little spat between other members of the crew."

Me: "Thanks. That's what I'm here for."

Mars One: "There's just one thing, um, could you perhaps emote a little more?"

Me: "I thought being emotionally balanced was an asset on a mission such as this? If anything, there were too MANY people emoting last week."

Mars One: "Um, yeah well. See that's good TV. People love that stuff. I know your dedication to the mission, we all do and we are extremely proud of all of you who were chosen but see, this is a ratings game. More emoting on your part will mean more sponsors which can help all of you once you achieve planetfall. The more sponsors, the more supplies come on the next mission. You surely understand this?"

Me: "I do understand but with all due respect, if some of us don't keep level heads we may never make planetfall."

Mars One: "Right. That's a perfectly logical response. I guess I should tell you this now. I like you Jade. I want to see you succeed. There's going to be a new program where people get to sponsor each of you individually. That means all your creature comforts will be earned by your Q rating two months prior to Mars Two lifting off. We need to increase your Q rating Jade. A little more emoting wouldn't be the worse thing in the world now would it?"

Me: "Um, no I guess not."

Mars One: "Good, so um, obviously we won't ask anything of you that is outrageous or anything but we were wondering if you could maybe kiss Charles? He's obviously taken a liking to you. Just a quick peck on the cheek, that's all."

Me: "Well that's not why I signed up for this."

Mars One: "Situations and perceptions change and your profile said you were highly adaptable."

Me: "I don't particularly think this is a good idea. Charles is a nice guy and all but I don't really like him in that way. If he likes me in that way then such affection could lead to the wrong impression which could lead to a future disagreement down the road."

Mars One: "Can you just pretend a little? I mean, you're a good flirt if you want to be. You have it in you Jade. Again, its for the ratings and your Q rating."

Me: "I'm a scientist. Not an actor."

Mars One: "On this mission, we ALL are actors."

Then I woke up.

I withdrew my video the very next day.

reply to post by JimOberg


I remember you posting about this almost 6 months ago.

Any reason why you made a thread about it today?

freelance_zenarchist
reply to post by JimOberg

 

I remember you posting about this almost 6 months ago.

Any reason why you made a thread about it today?

The program has 'selected down' the original applicants, dropping about 95% [my guess] of the original list. Sorry I didn't make that clear.

I'm still trying to find any evidence Johnston was ever a pilot, and ever earned even one PhD, or even two.

That's always been the fundamental question over his testimony -- is any of it factual at all?

reply to post by JimOberg


I'm guessing - No.

reply to post by JadeStar


I agree with you about the selection process, the whole popularity contest aspect was a huge turn off for me. I was going to enter just for fun until I read the part about having to appear in a reality show. Attracting the kind of people that want to live in the Big Brother house is going to make a hostile environment in that cramped shuttle.

I liked your dream by the way.

freelance_zenarchist
reply to post by JimOberg

 

I'm guessing - No.

Well, I'm not going to ask the Mars project. Last time Johnston made such claims in other people's websites, was on his bio statement for NASA's 'Solar System Ambassadors". Since around the Internet and on all-night radio talk shows, he was using that unpaid volunteer status to validate his bio claims, I asked the NASA lady in charge -- as a legit news media query -- whether their posting his claims was NASA endorsement of them. She telephoned him to ask about his claimed 'PhD', he got flustered, and offered to resign -- and she accepted. He described the crisis that night on George Noory's show -- it's on youtube, you can hear his own words. But later he changed his story to claim he was 'fired' for being quoted in Hoagland's book accusing NASA of lying about the moon. Unfortunately for his shape-shifting story, the original interview can still be heard. But in many forums I was the 'heavy' for making a fuss about him presenting NASA with a false claim about a PhD -- when what he really had was only a mail-order "Doctor of Philosophy" from a bogus 'seminary' [a PO Box in Denver].

So I'm staying out of it this time.

reply to post by JimOberg


Off the top of my head, his self-introduction doesn't "read" like it was written by a person with a Bachelors Degree, let alone -- a PhD. I could be wrong, of course, but it certainly isn't graduate level writing where I come from.

Here's what my investigations could document. He did honorable service as a Marine E3 flight line avionics tech in the mid-1960s, then was a tech for Apollo trainer hardware [never an instructor] in Houston, then a test subject for spacesuits, then a shipping clerk in the moon sample curator's office -- all important work, for sure, but not the way he spun it in later years. I can't find any evidence he was a pilot of any kind in those years -- maybe later, but no paper trail there, either.

I don't know who this guy is, but if his story was true it'd make the front page on almost every news site. So why is it not in the news? This causes the alarm inside my mind to fire and immediately makes me suspect this guy is not credible. Usually in cases like this you find the person is making unverifiable or false claims and has a questionable history and thus should usually not be trusted.

Why should I believe this guy?

At the end of the day, claims get us nowhere. We need evidence. I can claim I'm a martian, but what does it matter if I can't supply the evidence? If evidence isn't required then we may as well believe the moon is made of cheese.

reply to post by JimOberg


Since you brought his beef with you up, have you heard this interview (or is this one you are talking about) where he talks about you at 28:45. If you haven't heard this excerpt, can we get your take on it? Did he release documents which refuted your statements, like he claims? I have no dog in this fight (I do have a dog), so this is just for info purposes as I was listening to his vids after you posted his interview at the Smithsonian link. Thanks.

a 1000 candidates for a suicide mission

AthlonSavage
a 1000 candidates for a suicide mission

I know! They're all clamoring to go kill themselves. I wonder what would happen if the rocket was set to launch, and then a half-minute before it took off one of the suicidees changed their mind and said "Let me off this thing". Would they stop the countdown? I think they'd have to.

reply to post by JadeStar


Every month or so I read a post that gives me hope.
Your withdrawal from the Mars mission is our loss...
because I haven't heard a dialogue like that dream
since Asimov. On the other hand, having you onboard
Terra-side could open a door to a position of real
influence in the global community. We need all the
geniuses possible up there because it's truly a desert.
Also it was a cosmic shame I could afford only one star.

Aleister
reply to post by JimOberg

 

Since you brought his beef with you up, have you heard this interview (or is this one you are talking about) where he talks about you at 28:45. If you haven't heard this excerpt, can we get your take on it? Did he release documents which refuted your statements, like he claims?

Thanks for the link, I hadn't heard it before. I made some notes about the video,

Published on Apr 21, 2012
WebFlixsGuy•[steven sindoni] 408 videos
WWW.YOUTUBE.COM...
StephenSindoni.Webs.com...
In the book entitled " Perspectives on Modern World History citing page 39- it states that Astronaut Neil Armstrong after coming down the ladder was given a hand held camera by Buzz Aldrin. This contradicts Ken Johnston's explanation This is a lie...Ken Johnston said that on that first moon mission there were no hand held camera used...Cold busted...Listen to Surprise Caller Stephen Sindoni question Ken Johnston of NASA. Ken Johnston trained the astronauts for the Apollo Moon Missions.
Comments are disabled for this video

JimO comment: Of course Armstrong had a camera, you can see it in the 16-mm and the TV. It was usually mounted on brackets on his chest.

Poster's site features this video: Thanks for coming to my site... Help Change The Existing Paradigm. Please Read The Desire Statement Out Loud. I am in the process of attracting and allowing whatever I need to do, know or have, to impeach and imprison Barack Obama for deceiving the American people surrounding the sexuality of his wife Michelle, also known as Michael Obama. I am excited about the thought that Barack Obama will be going to prison for deceiving the American people for lying about the sexuality of his wife Michelle, also known as Michael Obama.

JimO comment: I pass.

Q: ANYBODY SEEN STRANGE STUFF?
ALDRIN SAW…
THE ASTRONAUT WHO’S A TERRIFIC ARTIST – HE’S TALKED ABOUT THINGS HE’S SEEN…

JimO comment: That's Alan Bean. He has never claimed to have seen any UFOs anywhere, except maybe in Ken's dreams.

I’VE SEEN THINGS I COULDN’T EXPLAIN, AS A PILOT
“I WAS IN AN F4 PHANTOM”

28:00 JET JOCKS, WE WANT TO GO FAST, WE HAVE A TENDENCY TO PUT OURSELVES INTO SITUATIONS..

JimO comment: Anybody can FOIA Ken's military records. I did. He was never a jet pilot. Maybe as a cadet he was taken on a familiarization hop, I was too, in the back seat. His career timeline in the 1960s didn't even show an open period of time sufficient to complete jet school. Anybody can verify this themselves.


FOR FIVE YEARS I WAS ONE OF JPL’S AND NASA’S SOLAR SYSTEM AMBASSADORS…

JAMES OBERG, WHO ACTUALLY WAS A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE WHEN I WAS BACK AT NASA, … HE CAME OUT ON THE ATTACK ON ME, ATTACKING MY CREDIBILITY, AT ONE POINT SAID I WAS NEVER THERE, OF COURSE I HAVE ALL THE DOCUMENTS AND RECORDS TO PROVE IT, AND PUT THEM OUT ON THE INTERNET TO PROVE IT, THAT HE WAS WRONG, BECAUSE OF THAT JPL CAME THROUGH AND PUT THE PRESSURE ON ME TO RESIGN, I REFUSED TO DO THAT, SO THEN I WAS TERMINATED,

JimO comment: I've racked my brains and checked my old phone books and he's not there. He has referred to a lunch hour astronomy discussion group in the late 1970s where we might have overlapped. Otherwise, I draw a complete blank. And I don't recall ever saying he wasn't at NASA, I never doubted he had been there -- just not in the prestigious positions he later claimed.

29:40 ARE YOU BITTER?
.. IT HAS DEMONSTRATED THE EXTREMES THAT NASA WILL GO TO KEEP THINGS SECRET

JimO comment: How smart is that, NASA thinking it could shut him up by booting him out of a non-paying volunteer program?

Q: WHY DIDN'T WE GO BACK TO THE MOON?
30:59 THERE WAS TALK ON THE MEDICAL LOOP THAT DOESN’T GO OUT ON THE NET THAT THERE WERE OTHER ENTITIES THERE WATCHING US…. THEY WARNED US OFF.

JimO comment: This is an old story from the 'National Enquirer' or one of those grocery store tabloids. If it really had been on the medical comm loop, Ken wouldn't have heard it either.

LATER – I WENT THE RELIGIOUS ROUTE, I WAS A REFORMED BAPTIST MINISTER…. I MARRIED A GUY WHO...
…
JimO comment: I think this refers to the certificate he bought from the PO Box in Denver before the Colorado AG office shut it down. I doubt it would have authorized him to perform weddings in Seattle, Washington.

reply to post by JimOberg


Thanks for your detailed answer, and I'm glad to pass along an interview which mentions your name that you haven't seen. The interviewer should have sought you out for comment, or at a minimum alerted you that you were mentioned in a negative light to give you a chance to respond. Fair is flair.

On a side note, the artworks of Alan Bean are very good, and apparently Bean includes a tiny bit of moondust in each painting from the patches he wore on his spacesuit as well as pieces of his craft's heatshield. Due to the historic nature of Bean, his paintings will likely have added value in the years to come. But as for seeing a UFO in space, I think Bean said that didn't happen (at least saying it for the record).

Here is Alan Bean's website for his artwork:
www.alanbean.com...

Johnston is headed to Switzerland soon to be featured at a MarsOne project conference.

But it looks like even THEY have caught on that his claimed credentials are bogus.

A new youtube post has CHANGED the way the program identifies him.
www.youtube.com...
has a graphic with the OLD description but the accompanying text
calls him “Ken Johnston - Retired Apollo mission employee”

Scheduled for Mar 1, 2014


SHARE THIS EVENT!!

Tickets / support us: www.MarstronautNight.org
EARLY BIRD tickets online only!

Program schedule:
10:00 - exhibition visit
13:00 - official welcome
13:15 - guest speeches
15:00 - special candidate challenges!
17:00 - dinner opportunity at the Restaurant of Technorama
18:00 - gala & music
23:30 - ending

Confirmed guests:
Jürg Hösli - Nutritional coach for athletes;
Ken Johnston - Retired Apollo mission employee
Norbert Kraft - Chief Medical Officer of Mars One
James Kass - Selection Committee Member/Psychological Training
Bas Lansdorp - Chief Executive Officer of Mars One

Admission fee:
25 EUR* first 50 tickets - via Indiegogo only
30 EUR* regular ticket
*exhibition fee of Technorama included

Location:
Technorama
Technoramastrasse 1
CH-8404 Winterthur
www.technorama.ch...

Closest airport is Zurich
Connection Zurich airport to Oberwinterthur by train ~ 35 minutes
www.sbb.ch...

Hotels: www.winterthur-tourismus.ch...

Event language: English

Links:
www.facebook.com...
www.mars-one.com...

Hosts:
Anna Schipp - Mars One Astronaut Candidate
Christian Meyer - Mars One Astronaut Candidate
Robert P. Schröder - Mars One Astronaut Candidate
Steve Schild - Mars One Astronaut Candidate

BUT -- Original website
www.indiegogo.com...
still has his original bogus claim:
"Ken Johnston - Retired Spacecraft Test Pilot from the Apollo mission"

Ken reveals more secrets from inside NASA, he says: www.youtube.com...