Veda #25 : Fly Me To The Moon

Day 25
Question : "Were Americans the first human who landed on the moon?"


At high school, we learned that the first human ever landed on the moon was Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. They travelled on Apollo 16 approximately 1/4 million miles to set foot on the moon surface at July 20th 1969. Neil Armstrong spoke the famous quote "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." This has been questioned perhaps because the Russians never sent a man to the moon and that, even nearly forty years later, there are still no American plans for a return visit. Was it a hoax?

The Moon Landing Conspiracy Theorists were initially labelled as lies and fools but recent Market Research studies have indicated that approximately 20% of Americans now believe that there is enough cumulative evidence to suggest that man never went to the moon - that the Lunar Landing was a hoax.

What reasons would the US Government have to fake such an event?
To answer such a question can only lie in space exploration history. The decade of the sixties was consumed by thoughts of the Cold War between Russia and the USA. The Russian launch of Sputnik terrified the USA due to the fear of nuclear annihilation. There was a real fear that the winners of the Space Race could build a Nuclear Missile Base on the Moon. Did this lead to the speculation about a Fake Moon Landing Hoax - a Conspiracy Theory?


What evidence do the Fake Moon Landing Conspiracy Theorists have?
The evidence and ideas put forward by the Fake Moon Landing Conspiracy Theorists include the following :

1. No Plans for return trips
2. Images show that Stars were missing from the black lunar sky
3. Absence of engine noise in official NASA footage - how was it possible to clearly hear the voices of the Astronauts?
4. No Blast Crater under the LEM after the powerful engines had been fired
5. Astronauts Footprints - How was it possible for footprints to be left undisturbed and without dust
6. American Flag was waving - how is this possible when there is no air on the moon
7. Grainy, Unclear images although technology at the time could have produced much clearer images
8. Shadows - The only source of light on the moon was the Sun but shadows were cast in multiple directions
9. Lighting - Images of Astronauts were brightly lighted although their positions would have clearly been in shadow. Some images indicate that the Astronauts appeared to be in spotlight
10. The Van Allen Radiation Belt - Could the Astronauts survive travelling through the deadly radiation belt which is situated 500 miles above the earth and is 1000's of miles thick with only the protection from their space suits and the thin covering of the space ship when it is estimated that 6 feet of lead would be necessary would have been needed. None of the Astronauts have since showed any signs of radiation poisoning
11. No other manned mission has gone through the Belt
12. Silencing - It seems unreasonable that information would not have been leaked about any such hoax - theorists therefore believe that key witnesses, including members of the Astronaut Corps, were deliberately silenced. Between 1964 and 1967 10 astronauts died in accidents - 15% of the total astronauts at that time.