Just yesterday, my friend Vinay asked me a really intriguing question " Do you believe that the moon landing actually happened? " At first, it seemed obvious that we did. As I began digging deeper I noticed several strong evidence to prove that it was just staged. Some explanations by NASA were definitely strong, and some others seemed just too vague to be true.
People have gone all ballistic about how evidences point away from what NASA tries to tell us. But let's keep an open mind while reading further and also give NASA the benefit of doubt.
If I have made an errors( blatant even), kindly notify me in the comments.
I have made a list of the popular "Give Aways" and tried to find reason as to how these claims CAN BE proved wrong( i.e saying that they did land on the moon).
Let us see at the "Give Aways" :-
1. The infamous "Waving Flag" theory.
Hoax Claim :- Conspiracy theorists have pointed out that when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted the flag, it was fluttering.
As you might all know outer space has no atmosphere( no air) hence how did the flag flutter?
My Theory :- The flag was constructed in a special way for the surface of the moon. A taut wire runs end to end along the length of the flag to keep it in place without waving. Without this due to gravity the flag would just sag( and hence appear as waving).
Also, NASA claims that the flapping was caused by the astronauts struggling to plant the flag into the ground( external force causing the fluttering). In further support, they claim that the flag was rippled as it was folded during storage, and the ripples have been mistaken for fluttering of the flag.
2. Where are the stars ?
Hoax Claim :- Another argument that people make is that, in outer space without the atmosphere, you should be able to see the stars much more clearly than from earth, but not only is this not true, there are no stars whatsoever.
My Theory :- This is the same as to how it is difficult to observe stars in the sky in big, well lit cities. The light from the sun incident on the surface of the moon is too bright for any camera to capture at a distance, it would not be possible to capture light coming from stars which are billions of miles away. Even the human eye would have to block the moon landscape to see even points of light in the sky.
The fact that all manned landings on the moon happened during lunar daytime, strongly supports this theory.
3. Different shadow lengths
Hoax Claim :- As you can see in the picture, shadows given off by astronauts are of different lengths, even though they might be standing close. People claimed this to be a faulty lighting system at the Hoax Set Up stage.
My theory :- This is similar to the situation in deserts. We can observe that our shadow lengths change as the hilly landscape( due to sand dunes) causes all sorts of changes in lengths of shadows no matter where you stand.
4. Deeper impressions by footprints than lunar module
Hoax Claim :- The Lunar Module weighed about 17 tons, yet the astronauts who walked on the moon seem to have made a deeper foot impression. How is this possible ?
Theory :- The measured weight of 17 tons is when it left earth. By the time it reached the moon, it was just 1350 kilograms. The fuel burnt from the decent stage propellant would have removed at least 9-10 tons. On top of this, the foot pads are of 37 inch diameters, which is much more compared to Neil Armstrong show span. And as we know Pressure = Force/Area. The force of the Lunar Module was distributed well enough.
NASA quotes Neil Armstrong - "the LM foot pads are only depressed in the surface about 1 or 2 inches". On the other hand, the footprints of the astronauts were depressed only a fraction of an inch, although people often exaggerate their depth.
5. The C rock
Hoax Claim :- The infamous picture of a rock on the moon which contains the letter "C" stamped on it. This gives the impression that the moon rocks are nothing but simple old stage props and some designer forgot to remove the C.
Theory :- NASA claims that the C is just a photographic glitch, a hair which got in during the development process.
But not a convincing enough theory.
I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg, and there are hundreds of these hoax claims.
These links will definitely intrigue you even further. Feel free to discuss with me in the comments.
http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories
Edit :
An interesting video that my friend pointed out.
People have gone all ballistic about how evidences point away from what NASA tries to tell us. But let's keep an open mind while reading further and also give NASA the benefit of doubt.
If I have made an errors( blatant even), kindly notify me in the comments.
I have made a list of the popular "Give Aways" and tried to find reason as to how these claims CAN BE proved wrong( i.e saying that they did land on the moon).
Let us see at the "Give Aways" :-
1. The infamous "Waving Flag" theory.
Hoax Claim :- Conspiracy theorists have pointed out that when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted the flag, it was fluttering.
As you might all know outer space has no atmosphere( no air) hence how did the flag flutter?
My Theory :- The flag was constructed in a special way for the surface of the moon. A taut wire runs end to end along the length of the flag to keep it in place without waving. Without this due to gravity the flag would just sag( and hence appear as waving).
Also, NASA claims that the flapping was caused by the astronauts struggling to plant the flag into the ground( external force causing the fluttering). In further support, they claim that the flag was rippled as it was folded during storage, and the ripples have been mistaken for fluttering of the flag.
2. Where are the stars ?
Hoax Claim :- Another argument that people make is that, in outer space without the atmosphere, you should be able to see the stars much more clearly than from earth, but not only is this not true, there are no stars whatsoever.
My Theory :- This is the same as to how it is difficult to observe stars in the sky in big, well lit cities. The light from the sun incident on the surface of the moon is too bright for any camera to capture at a distance, it would not be possible to capture light coming from stars which are billions of miles away. Even the human eye would have to block the moon landscape to see even points of light in the sky.
The fact that all manned landings on the moon happened during lunar daytime, strongly supports this theory.
3. Different shadow lengths
Hoax Claim :- As you can see in the picture, shadows given off by astronauts are of different lengths, even though they might be standing close. People claimed this to be a faulty lighting system at the Hoax Set Up stage.
My theory :- This is similar to the situation in deserts. We can observe that our shadow lengths change as the hilly landscape( due to sand dunes) causes all sorts of changes in lengths of shadows no matter where you stand.
4. Deeper impressions by footprints than lunar module
Hoax Claim :- The Lunar Module weighed about 17 tons, yet the astronauts who walked on the moon seem to have made a deeper foot impression. How is this possible ?
Theory :- The measured weight of 17 tons is when it left earth. By the time it reached the moon, it was just 1350 kilograms. The fuel burnt from the decent stage propellant would have removed at least 9-10 tons. On top of this, the foot pads are of 37 inch diameters, which is much more compared to Neil Armstrong show span. And as we know Pressure = Force/Area. The force of the Lunar Module was distributed well enough.
NASA quotes Neil Armstrong - "the LM foot pads are only depressed in the surface about 1 or 2 inches". On the other hand, the footprints of the astronauts were depressed only a fraction of an inch, although people often exaggerate their depth.
5. The C rock
Hoax Claim :- The infamous picture of a rock on the moon which contains the letter "C" stamped on it. This gives the impression that the moon rocks are nothing but simple old stage props and some designer forgot to remove the C.
Theory :- NASA claims that the C is just a photographic glitch, a hair which got in during the development process.
But not a convincing enough theory.
I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg, and there are hundreds of these hoax claims.
These links will definitely intrigue you even further. Feel free to discuss with me in the comments.
http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories
Edit :
An interesting video that my friend pointed out.
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