The Top Ten Reasons Why the Moon Landings Weren't Faked

July 20, 2008

One billion people on Earth watched as the first human set foot on the moon 39 years ago today.

This will long be remembered as a crowning achievement of our nation. It will be revered by civilization a millennium from now as an evolutionary leap as significant as when the first sea creatures ventured onto the land 400 million years ago. This was our first step toward becoming an extraterrestrial civilization that colonizes the solar system, harvests its resources, and ultimately sends robot emissaries to earthlike planets around other stars.

What has wormed its way into pop culture to detract from this awesome event is the totally absurd notion that NASA's Project Apollo moon flights were faked and the moonwalk footage cleverly filmed in a secret studio. The claim is that we really couldn’t get a human to the moon and back safely, but we would do anything to make it look like we beat the Soviets to the moon in a Cold War technological Olympics.

This idea has been popularized in books over the past 35 years by an eclectic group of government conspiracy fanatics, Inspector Clouseau- class detectives, and self-proclaimed “rocket scientists.” The writings of these self-styled experts betrays an abysmal lack of understanding of astronomy, physics, and photographic science.

The moon hoax paranoia found new life in a naive and sensationalized FOX-TV documentary Conspiracy Theory: Did We Really Land on the Moon, which aired in early 2001. I even got calls from in-laws about it who previously never even thought about space travel.

All the program succeeded in doing was to reinvigorate scatterbrained moon hoax theories that propagate across the Internet like whack-a-moles popping up. It doesn't help that NASA has not sent humans beyond low Earth orbit since 1972.  So for younger people it seems odd that we supposedly went to the moon long ago, but can't do it today. Explorers  still climb Mt. Everest, visit Antarctica,  and dive down miles to the ocean floor, but the moon is presently beyond the reach of human touch.

This Apollo moon hoax theory inevitably comes up in classroom discussion, workplace conversation, or among friends. So, if you have any acquaintances that are government conspiracy nuts, here are Ray’s top ten reasons we really did send humans to the moon from 1968 to 1972.

1. Impossible Cover-up
Absolutely not one person from the Apollo era’s 35,000 NASA employees or 200,000 contractors has ever stepped forward with “whistle-blowing” testimony or “smoking gun” memos. The Hollywood special effects wizards who presumably pulled off Academy-Award winning scenes have remained stone silent. (Despite the fact it would look great on their resumes!) There is a reprehensible conspiracy claim that the government murdered the Apollo 1 astronauts in a staged launch pad mishap because they knew too much.

2. NASA’s Own Actions Are Inconsistent With Pulling Off a Moon Hoax
If what actually happened during the Apollo program was scripted, the government showed an unbelievable penchant for gambling and brinksmanship. For example, NASA would have had to pretend to almost kill the crew of Apollo 13. For what? To boost TV ratings, or intimidated astronauts to keep their mouths shut? Why would NASA have also had an astronaut pretend to break a camera (Apollo12) after squandering billions of dollars on film special effects?

3.  Cargo of Physical Evidence
The reality of the 842 pounds of rock samples from the moon is incontrovertible. For this to be otherwise all of the world’s foremost planetary scientists are dead wrong (imagine the book: Moon Rock Analysis for Dummies). You simply don’t walk down the beach and pick up a 4.3 billion year old rock. The data lead to a new theory for the formation of the Earth-moon system 4.4 billion years ago.

4. Film Special Effects Technology Was Too Primitive in the 1960s
Today we all take cinema fantasy scenes for granted thanks to the rapid evolution of computer graphics and digital image processing fueled by the microcomputer revolution. Realistic footage of dinosaurs, space aliens and fantasy creatures can be completely fabricated with perfectly precise control of lighting, motion choreography, and 3D computer graphics effects.  The hours of astronaut moonwalk video are far too complex to be faked with comparatively stone-age 1960s special effects technology.  For example, all the effects in the 1968 landmark film 2001:A Space Odyssey required complex, time consuming, and cumbersome optical printing techniques costing the equivalent of $54 million today. The Apollo billions of dollars would have to have been spent on building a time machine to bring back from the 21st century an image rendering supercomputer and powerful animation software – not to mention kidnapping a computer animation artist from the future.

5. Circumlunar Space is Not Lethal to Humans
The radiation and micrometeorite hazards of space did not pose so lethal a threat to humans that they could not make a mere two-week cruise to the moon and back. The dosimeters worn by the Apollo astronauts showed they received about the same cumulative dosage as a chest X-ray while spending 30 minutes zipping though the Van Allen radiation belts at 25,000 miles per hour.  Yes, X-rays from a solar flare could have killed an Apollo crew, but the flights were made during a period of minimal solar activity. What’s more, if space was so chock full of meteoroids (as exaggerated in numerous science fiction movies) the armada of communication and weather satellites would have been obliterated long ago.

6. Direct Observational Evidence
The six lunar lander descent stages left on the moon are about 15 feet across. Even the eagle-eyed Hubble Space Telescope can only see down to the width of a football field. The first direct visual evidence was uncovered by the 1994 Clementine lunar orbiter images that reveal disturbed regolith (but no impact crater) around the exact location of the Apollo 15 landing site.  This happens because the lunar regolith is "weathered" by the solar wind so that it gets darker and slightly redder over time. Impact craters shows that freshly excavated regolith is lighter and bluer.  NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to be launched later this year will be able to photograph the left behind Apollo hardware. But of course that won’t convince the skeptics because the photo came from – whom else -- NASA!

7. Could Not Be Filmed On a Soundstage Or In Area 51
If the moonwalks were filmed in the Air Force's top secret Area 51 as some conspiracy folks assert, the shadows would have noticeably changed direction as the sun moved across the sky. And, somehow the blue desert sky would have had to been matted out to be black. NASA’s use of gold-mirrored helmet faceplates for the Apollo astronauts also nails reality. The
faceplates would have reflected everything if the footage was shot on a soundstage:  lights, cameras and technicians (caution: cinematographer is closer than he appears). The film director would have used transparent helmets instead. Finally, the American flag doesn’t wave because a fan on the set is blowing! The flag appears to wave after an astronaut touches the pole. The vibration takes more time to dampen out than on Earth because the flag material is moving without air resistance in a vacuum and in 1/6th the pull of gravity.

8. Landing Site Pictures are Photographically Accurate
The long list of claims about  “studio lighting” of the moonwalks only betrays the critics’ lack of understanding of fundamental photography. There are no fill lights despite gobs of amateurish photo analysis to the contrary. All the images are consistent with one single brilliant light source – the sun. Because of the bright sun and the lack of studio fill lighting the moonwalk image shadows are inky black. Moon surface photos have a much bigger contrast ratio (range of difference between brightest and darkest parts of the image) of at least 20:1. A Hollywood lighting technician would have used the standard lighting ratio of 3:1.

9. You Don’t See Stars in the Daytime
The completely idiotic but highly publicize “gotcha” is that there are no stars in the lunar sky. Duh, It was lunar daytime during the moonwalks. Therefore, the cameras were set on the same exposure you would use for a sunny day at the beach on Earth. Try photographing stars at midnight with a simple box camera pre-set for a daytime exposure and see what develops. If stars did appear in the images it would have been proof the footage was faked. If you don’t believe this go surfing the Internet and find just one amateur photo of a properly exposed moon that shows stars in the background. The one photo you’ll see is a deliberate Photoshop artistic composite by the scientists at the National Optical Astronomy Observatories in Tucson, Arizona.

10. You Can’t Fake 1/6 Gravity
It was a surprise on Apollo 11 to see astronaut hopping around like kangaroos under the gently tug of 1/6 gravity. No one could have scripted this. It is never was as Hollywood ever imagined it. This cannot be realistically faked except through the use of sophisticated computer graphics. Conspiracy theorists can’t dismiss hours and hours of Apollo footage that shows all lunar object following simple ballistic motion in 1/6 g that is completely differently than it would appear in Earth’s gravitational environment. There are endless subtleties in the Apollo scenes showing this. The way dust flies along long shallow parabolic trajectories when it is kicked up; the foil blasted off the lander when the rover’s camera filmed the Apollo 17 ascent module lifting off; the golf ball hit on by Alan Shepherd on Apollo 14; and the wonderful scene from Apollo 15 where David Scott drops a hammer and feather which falls at the same slow rate in a vacuum at 1/6 g. The final true tour de force is footage of the entire moon rover bouncing and kicking up dust that behaves exactly as it would in 1/6th g.

In reality, only about ten percent of the U.S. population actually believes the moon landings were faked. Also, about ten percent of the U.S. population is intoxicated at any given time. So, I think there is a correlation.

Photos, top to bottom: New York Times; Weekly World News; NASA

Comments

[Dave Mosher]

"In reality, only about ten percent of the U.S. population actually believes the moon landings were faked. Also, about ten percent of the U.S. population is intoxicated at any given time. So, I think there is a correlation."

That makes a lot more sense to me than faking a half dozen moon landings :)

[BP]

How can you not include in this list the fact that the Soviets were watching and listening to our every move? That alone is reason enough to shut up the "lunies."

[patrick]

there was really no proof in this article. no references. no real evidence
i like thinking the landing could be fake. its like thinking about giant squid. fun to think about, could be true.
it says things about the film quality back then, but we are talking about NASA and the government, not paramount studios
the stars thing is a joke. "check any amateur" how about i check the pics taken by the astronauts. considering they probably would have taken tons of pics im sure 1 would have stars. or should
and why wouldnt they fake the moon landing? we faked why we are at war. and that costs more money and lives.
dont underestimate what people will do for power and money.
plus your shadow "evidence" was lacking very much.
check the internet a little more. maybe compare and contrast what half the internet has said about it rather than just having your own opinion that is just that. one persons opinion

[Chris]

It couldn't be more true.We also have rock samples dating back from 4.3 billion years ago and not just 1 pound but 842 pounds.And how about the gravity that is 1/6th of the earth's.It couldn't be faked for sure.I really believe that the apollo landing was true.

[elfie]

Those that think the Moon landings were faked are part & parcel of the same crowd that believe the Pyramids in Egypt were built by aliens--how could humans have possibly done these things? It's grating after awhile. Yes, it doesn't help to not have been back for 36 years and in the meantime the special effects technologies have dramatically improved, but someone that has only lived since CGI graphics have come into their own truly cannot imagine the special effects world as it was before this time. Think of the early Dr. Who episodes in comparison to today's Battlestar Galactica, or even recent Dr. Who episodes! Watch the Twilight Zone from the 60's and you'll easily pick out the episodes that were video taped from the filmed episodes. Ray Villard makes an excellent point about 2001, since this is apotheosis of CGI at the time which in no way resembles any of the moon shots.

[k]

i think that all r fooling the up comming generation and no one has ever stepped in moon cus there r numerious resons &i just totally disagree about the fact that any one has ever steped in moon

[x-ray fluorescence]

Hi,
very nice informative post.Those that think the Moon landings were faked are part & parcel of the same crowd that believe the Pyramids in Egypt were built by aliens--how could humans have possibly done these things?....

[Sue]

I want to believe we walked on the moon way back then but it always seemed fantastical to me. I remember watching it on a old black and white TV. (and some of my friends didn't even have TV in their homes yet) In the somewhat rural community we I lived we still used a old fashioned "party line' for communication. We were technologically devoid like lots lots of folk back then. So watching people walk on the moon was beyond amazing to us-it was like watching a miracle unfold. And I always wondered why the moon wouldn't be mined by now if it were so easy to get too, given human nature. All I know is when I watched it on our old black and white television I absolutely believed it, now that I am much older and see how todays world has changed technologically, I think its double miracle that we actually got people to the moon when alot of my friends still didn't have indoor plumbing.