Nasa challenges Moon hoax claims

BBC News Online ^ | 11/07/02 | Dr. David Whitehouse

[GeneD]

For years there have been rumours that the Apollo lunar landings were faked, staged on a movie set to convince the world that the US had beaten the Soviets to the Moon.

And, despite evidence to the contrary, the belief that the "one small step for man" was a sham continues to spread.

Now, having tried to stay above the rumours, the US space agency (Nasa) has finally got fed up with the conspiracy theorists and asked James Oberg, a leading aerospace writer, to produce a book that it hopes will settle the issue.

But will it work, or will it just add a certain credibility to the hoax theory?

Flags that ripple on the airless Moon, discrepancies in the part numbers of lunar lander components, shadows that point in the wrong direction, the lack of stars seen in the sky - these are all "facts" that have fuelled the conspiracy theory.

It is claimed that the six Apollo landings took place in a hangar on a secret military base.

Over the years, every one of the lines of evidence has been discredited but the rumours refuse to go away.

In September, Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, punched a man in the face after he had confronted the former astronaut at a Beverly Hills hotel.

Bart Sibrel - who has made a film questioning the Apollo Moon missions - had demanded that Mr Aldrin, 72, swear on the Bible that he had in fact walked on the Moon.

Prosecutors declined to file assault charges against Mr Aldrin.

Truth out there

Tackling the conspiracy theory head-on in an official book was the idea of Nasa's former chief historian Roger Launius.

He says that hardcore conspiracy theorists are not the book's main audience, as they will never be convinced of the truth.

Instead, it will be aimed at the general public and especially teachers, giving them the science to answer questions in class.

Doubters will no doubt dismiss the new book as just another attempt by the establishment to cover up the truth.

Nasa says the rippling flag is easily explained by the fact that the astronauts twisted it as they planted it in the soil.

The stars are not visible in the lunar sky because of the bright landscape and the light from the Earth drowning them out.

In a few years a definite answer could be possible.

A private company, Transorbital, will place a private high-resolution satellite into orbit around the Moon. It should have the power to see the Apollo hardware left on the surface.

[rockprof]

It's amazing what people will believe!

Check out http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/apollohoax.html if you're interested in the topic.

[anniegetyourgun]

This is gonna bum certain Freepers out....

[anniegetyourgun]

Correction: This is gonna bum some anti-Freepers out!

[Alta Mura]

I wonder why they don't go back to the moon.

[APBaer]

"Doubters will no doubt dismiss the new book as just another attempt by the establishment to cover up the truth."


He can follow up with a series:

Is the earth truly flat?

Is the earth over 6,000 years old?

[Cincinatus]

Because we can't. We threw away the spacecraft and boosters that took us to the Moon in the 1970's.

[LibWhacker]

While it's always a pleasure to read something by James Oberg, this is a big waste of taxpayer money and Oberg's time, if you ask me; there are still wackos out there who believe the Earth is flat. You'll never convince them.

[MrNeutron1962]

Money. It costs a lot of money to run NASA. All of it has been going to the ISS, which is really to bad. We should have left low earth orbiting space stations to the Russians.

If going to the moon had direct commercial value, private industry would have gone there decades ago. Unfortuantely, it dosen't seem to have anything we need that we can't get on earth a whole lot cheaper.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

The moon is made of spam.

[GunRunner]

I've always wondered how they (wacko conspiracy theorists) explained the gazillion ton Saturn 5 rocket. Was that just a prop too? And the members of the press who saw the astronauts get into the module; was there a secret exit that they used to get out before the damn thing blasted off?

Idiots.

[Burkeman1]

This is a bad idea. No amount of evidence will ever convince these sadly deluded people. They are disturbed people and so much of their personal identity- the center of their being and definitions of who they are is wrapped up in knowing the "Real Truth" about the lunar landings that even if they were taken to the moon themselves they would be unable to believe it and insist that they were in a hollywood set. In fact any attention payed to them at all only deepens their pyschosis. There are actually people who believe the earth is flat and have their "evidence" as well. Sad.

[clueless idiot]

Now now, but it's a matter of time before lunar helium-3 mining becomes pratical and economically viable:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/helium3_000630.html

[mrsmith]

Last year's thread: NASA Debunks Moon Landing Hoax Conspiracy

Sigh, the true believers will never be convinced.

[ladylib]

Aliens on the moon told the astronauts to get lost and not come back ever.

[RightWhale]

Does it matter at all whether Buzz Aldrin and the others walked on the moon? I know what went into the moon landings, not just from reading books and watching documentaries. But the point is that we are no longer sending men to the moon. Sure, when you see Jupiter in the sky tonight, you can remember that there is a NASA spacecraft orbiting around that planet. And when you see Saturn, remember that another NASA spacecraft is near the planet and preparing to go into orbit around that. That's fine in itself, to think that the solar system is crawling with spacecraft everywhere. But we aren't sending men to the moon these days, and it doesn't matter that we once did.

[Ingtar]

Writing a book to prove we went to the Moon? Ludicrous! The same education system that should have convinced it's students of the reality of the Moon landings is the same one that taught them to read. There is no hope to convince them this way.

Perhaps a new round of History Rock? History Hip Hop. History Rap?

[GunRunner]

Here's the "flag blowing in the wind" video:

http://www.moonmovie.com/flag_blowing.ram

[Lucas1]

Bad: When the astronauts are assembling the American flag, the flag waves. Kaysing says this must have been from an errant breeze on the set. A flag wouldn't wave in a vacuum.

Good: Of course a flag can wave in a vacuum. In the shot of the astronaut and the flag, the astronaut is rotating the pole on which the flag is mounted, trying to get it to stay up. The flag is mounted on one side on the pole, and along the top by another pole that sticks out to the side. In a vacuum or not, when you whip around the vertical pole, the flag will ``wave'', since it is attached at the top. The top will move first, then the cloth will follow along in a wave that moves down. This isn't air that is moving the flag, it's the cloth itself.

[Lucas1]

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html