PHOTOS: 8 Moon-Landing Hoax Myths -- Busted

nationalgeographic ^

[JoeProBono]

July 16, 2009--Forty years after U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon, many conspiracy theorists still insist the Apollo 11 moon landing was an elaborate hoax. Examine the photographic evidence, and find out why experts say some of the most common claims simply don't hold water.

You can tell Apollo was faked because ... the American flag appears to be flapping as if "in a breeze" in videos and photographs supposedly taken from the airless lunar surface.

The fact of the matter is ... "the video you see where the flag's moving is because the astronaut just placed it there, and the inertia from when they let go kept it moving," said spaceflight historian Roger Launius, of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

The astronauts also accidentally bent the horizontal rods holding the flag in place several times, creating the appearance of a rippling flag in photographs (Apollo 11 moon-landing pictures).

[JoeProBono]

Neil Armstrong and the Eagle lunar lander are reflected in Buzz Aldrin's visor in one of the most famous images taken during the July 1969 moon landing.

You can tell Apollo was faked because ... only two astronauts walked on the moon at a time, yet in photographs such as this one where both are visible, there is no sign of a camera. So who took the picture?

The fact of the matter is ... the cameras were mounted to the astronauts' chests, said astronomer Phil Plait, author of the award-winning blog Bad Astronomy and president of the James Randi Educational Foundation.

The lunar lander known as the Eagle rests peacefully on the moon's surface in a picture taken mere hours after the July 20, 1969, moon landing.

You can tell Apollo was faked because ... the module is shown sitting on relatively flat, undisturbed soil. According to skeptics, the lander's descent should have been accompanied by a large dust cloud and would have formed a noticeable crater. (Explore an interactive moon map.)

The fact of the matter is ... the lander's engines were throttled back just before landing, and it did not hover long enough to form a crater or kick up much dust, the Smithsonian's Launius said. "Science fiction movies depict this big jet of fire coming out as [spacecraft] land, but that's not how they did it on the moon," he added. "That's not the way they would do it now or anytime in the future."

The contrasted lines of a bootprint appear as Buzz Aldrin lifts his foot to record an image for studying the moon's soil properties. Apollo pictures show scores of clear bootprints left behind as the astronauts traipsed across the moon. (Find out more about moon exploration.)

You can tell Apollo was faked because ... the astronauts' prints are a bit too clear for being made on a bone-dry world. Prints that well defined could only have been made in wet sand.

The fact of the matter is ... that's nonsense, said Bad Astronomy's Plait. Moon dust, or regolith, is "like a finely ground powder. When you look at it under a microscope, it almost looks like volcanic ash. So when you step on it, it can compress very easily into the shape of a boot." And those shapes could stay pristine for a long while thanks to the airless vacuum on the moon.

[Salamander]

They got a lotta 'splainin to do however, about this fossil found by the Mars Rover

[guitarplayer1953]

I have a question why is the shadow of the flag to the left where as the astronaut and the lunar lander shadows are to the right?

[microgood]

Great post. Just the other day I saw some photos of where the descent lunar modules are. They did not reveal much but I think they are going to get closer shots.

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[djf]

What you see to the left of the flag on the ground is not a shadow - it’s just the way the rocks are. Look at the cloth of the flag itself, and you plainly see that it is illuminated from the left.

I did alot of photo and video viewing as part of my series “Forty years ago - today” that I posted over the last few days. I reviewed hundreds of photos and dozens of videos.

We went to the moon. No doubt at all.

There are literally thousands of still photos, and HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS video frame photos that can be analyzed and shown to be correct. Not to mention hundreds of hours of voice com, and hundreds of hours, if not thousands of automatic telemetry data sent back by the spacecraft, both when the Command module was attached to the LEM, and during the landing phase when the command module was orbiting, and the LEM had landed.

No one could fake that data. No one.

We went to the moon!

[djf]

If you went to a world where the surface was talcum powder, it would leave a print exactly as well defined as that.

We’re not talking about beach sand here.

[AmericanInTokyo]

If someone were to "fake it", as senior and intelligent as this horde of engineers were, you can bet they would have found some way to make the flag NOT look like it was blowing in any kind of wind--if there were wind.

Those assertions are amateur, and really show there are a lot of crackpots.

No wonder Buzz Aldrin decked that guy getting in his face. To go through that kind of training, and danger, and have an unparalleled achievement under your belt, and have then to have some yahoo on earth tell you that you never went there, I don't know if I could hold back with just only one knuckle sandwich.

[Cvengr]

..."only two astronauts walked on the moon at a time, yet in photographs such as this one where both are visible, there is no sign of a camera. So who took the picture?"

I have a photo in my archives attributing that to USMC Combat Photographers in action. (It shows a CH-46 dusting off in the background of the Astronaut and flag photo,...seems good enough to pass some muster...) <;^)

[AmericanInTokyo]

"In this day and age of book deals, you don't think ONE NASA person in on it, would have have kept at least one conspiratorial document or series of pages, to then release it (and their best selling book and notoriety) and become a billionaire over it all in one fell swoop?

That is the question I would pose to those flat earth kooks.

Literally, they have some short circuit of wiring in their brains to think like that. Twilight Zone for sure.

[OldDeckHand]

Multiple light sources. The astronauts suit itself (and his visor) would reflect quite a bit of light, probably enough to cast it's own shadow.

[Lancey Howard]

Hilarious!
Ooh ooh... Is there a thread “busting” the earth-is-flat theory?

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

[wannabegeek]

Is this National Geographic now run by ACORN? AFAIK Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong had specially modified Hasselblad cameras mounted in their suits. Shooting photos facing the sun will create ghost images in the picture.

[JoeProBono]

[fr_freak]

I have a question why is the shadow of the flag to the left where as the astronaut and the lunar lander shadows are to the right?

The shadow you at looking at is not the shadow of the flagpole. It is a shadow from something else off to the left. The shadow of the flag pole is the to right and up from the base of the flagpole. It looks short due to the angle of the shadow to the camera.

[Salamander]

If you tightly pack corn starch into a container and press an object into it, you get a *perfect* mold into which you can pour resin for a “sculpture”.

Same principle as the footprints.

[KingLudd]

Something like 400,000 govt. workers, contractors, sub-contractors, etc. worked for the Apollo program. Every last one of them kept this very important secret. At a cocktail party, Buzz Aldrin told me he walked on the moon. Good enough for me.