Apollo moon landing hoax accusations
Some people have made the controversial allegation that the Apollo program landings were faked by NASA with possible CIA support. Although the hoax idea has apparently gained credence with some in the general public (a 1999 Gallup poll suggested 6% of the population of the US believe the claim) nearly all interested scientists and historians have rejected the claim, considering it to be a baseless conspiracy theory.The landing skeptics believe that the moon landings of Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969 and subsequent missions never happened, but were faked on Earth. The theory grew significantly in popularity since the release of the movie Capricorn One (1978), in which NASA attempted to fake a landing on Mars. It is possible that a brief sequence in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever (1971) which appears to show a moon landing being simulated may coincide with some of the first suggestions of the landings being faked.
A more subtle version of the theory is that although the Apollo missions were not faked, some of the photographs were. According to this theory, the US government feared the humiliation that would occur if the mission failed and fake photographs etc were prepared on Earth "just in case." Although the mission was a success, some of these fake photographs were so impressive that it was decided to release them anyway for propaganda purposes. This version of the theory has the advantage—or disadvantage—that it is more difficult to falsify.
Regarding Apollo 11 there are many claims and counter-claims. Theorists protest that most rebuttals address statements they never made, or else ignore the relevant facts.
Motive
Regardless of whether one accepts the accusation that the landings were faked, several motives existed for the U.S government to fake the moon landings - some of the major elements are:
- Distraction - The US government benefitted from a popular distraction to take attention away from the Vietnam war. Landing skeptics point out that lunar activities abruptly stopped around the same time that the Vietnam War ended.
- Cold War Prestige - The US government considered it vital that the US win the space race with the USSR. Going to the moon, if it was possible, would have been risky and expensive. It would have been much easier to fake the landing, thereby ensuring success.
- Money - NASA raised approximately 30 billion dollars pretending to go to the moon. This could have been used to pay off a large number of people, providing significant motivation for complicity.
- Risk - The available technology at the time was such that there was a good chance that the landing might fail if genuinely attempted.
Issues of photographs
Landing skeptics have alleged various issues with photographs claimed to have been taken on the moon.
Crosshairs on some photos appear to be behind objects, rather than in front of them where they should be, as if the photos were altered.
In photography, the light white color (the object behind the crosshair) makes the black object (the crosshair) invisible.
Issues of radiation
The astronauts could not have survived the trip because of exposure to radiation from van Allen radiation belt and other sources.
- Landing believers
Mechanical Issues
The lack of a blast crater from the landing
Exhaust from the propulsion system was throttled low during the final stages of low gravity descent and the lack of air-pressure on the moon causes those exhaust gases to rapidly expand well beyond the landing site. Therefore there was in fact little pressure right below the landing site.
Some landing skeptics have claimed that famed director Stanley Kubrick was somehow a part of the conspiracy, usually casting him as the director of the moon landing sequence. These proponents hypothesize that the superb "realistic" outer space effects of the movie were developed and perfected in special CIA film sets while preparing the faked moon landings, and that Kubrick later made use of the same special effects technology to make his movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The claim that the rocks are the same as ones found on Earth does cary some weight in the scientific comunity. However, most scientists belive that at one point the moon itself was part of the Earth, and an impact with a large object (probably the size of Mars) disloged millions of kilograms of loose material from the Earth. This later formed into the moon. (see Giant impact theory)
In September, 2002, astronaut Buzz Aldrin assaulted Bart Sibrel who had repeatedly, over several years, demanded that Aldrin swear an oath on the Bible that he had walked on the moon, or admit that it was all a hoax. Aldrin repeatedly refused to do this.
In early November 2002 NASA announced that it was cancelling publication of a book by Jim Oberg that was intended to challenge the claims that the Moon landings were a hoax. Their decision was apparently prompted by the outcry raised by people who felt such a book would legitimize the claims of hoax theorists.
European scientists have announced in 2002 that they intend to use the Very Large Telescope to obtain images of the moon landing sites, which are expected to show the moon lander bases still in place. No firm date has been given when the telescope will be used for this purpose, or when the results will be released. It also seems likely that any photographs produced would be subject to the same scepticism that has dogged other evidence, and that accusations will be made that these, too, could be faked.
Moon Rocks
Landing believers claim that rocks allegedly brought back from the moon prove that the landings took place, however, skeptics raise concerns about ex-Nazi and NASA's chief rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun's trip to Antarctica two years prior to Apollo missions. No credible explanation for the trip was ever offered, and it is claimed that he would have been susceptible to pressure to agree to the conspiracy in order to protect himself from recriminations for his Nazi past.Stanley Kubrick
It is alleged that in early 1968 (while 2001: A Space Odyssey was in post production), NASA secretly approached Kubrick to direct the first three moon landings. He initially said he was not interested, but, apparently, NASA convinced him using a combination of carrot and stick; exclusive access to the alien artifacts and autopsy footage from the Roswell crash site, and threats to publicly reveal Raul's (Kubrick's younger brother) links with the American Communist Party. Kubrick is alleged to have spent sixteen months working on the project with a special effects team led by Douglas Trumbull on a sound stage in Huntsville, Alabama, with the Apollo 11 mission being staged in July of 1969.
Allegedly a Saturn V rocket was launched into low Earth orbit with astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins remaining there while Kubrick's footage of the 'landing' was released to the press. The return to Earth and splashdown were, of course, real. Several months later, the Apollo 12 mission was successfully staged in a similar manner. Randall Cunningham was later recruited to direct a 'failed mission'.Deaths of key people involved with the Apollo program
10 astronauts and others related to the program died in accidents - landing skeptics claim that these are part of a cover-up, and that NASA or other US government agencies were disposing of people who they feared would 'blow the whistle'.
Falsifiability
Unlike some other theories, this is claimed by some to be falsifiable. Observations could be made—for example, through powerful telescopes or via new moon landings—of the physical evidence—landing bases, equipment, footprints, etc.—that would prove or disprove the theory. For example, the Apollo astronauts reportedly left reflectors on the moon that scientists routinely use to very precisely measure the distance from the earth to the moon. To date no such evidence has been presented, and, in any event is likely to be discounted by skeptics, who contend that those data could also be faked, or that reflectors, if they exist, could more easily have been placed by robot missions and do not prove a human landing. External links
