Denial of the Moon landings is a good example of faulty expectations. Conspiracy talkers don’t ask themselves if their expectations hold true. When expectations are faulty real is mistaken for false. Then they imagine hoaxes which are not humanly possible. Not only because of human error. But due to the necessary technology not existing at that point in time. In 1969 there was technology to get to the Moon. In contrast there was not technology to fake a Moon landing.
There is a reason for me to speak about the Moon landings in plural. In 1969 – 72 six Moon landings were done. Moreover, three journeys were done around the Moon without landing. This gives nine journeys to or around the Moon over a little more than four years:
• Apollo 8, December 1968. Rounded the Moon once and took the famous Earthrise image.
• Apollo 10, May 1969. Went into orbit around the Moon without really landing.
• Apollo 11, July 1969. First to actually land on the Moon.
• Apollo 12, November 1969. Landed and took with it parts from an earlier robotic probe.
• Apollo 13, April 1970. Failed to land because of an accident.
• Apollo 14, January – February 1971. Landed in the place the previous was intended to.
• Apollo 15, July – August 1971. Fist to land with a moon buggy and stayed longer than any other.
• Apollo 16, April 1972. Apart from landing on the Moon did a spacewalk.
• Apollo 17, December 1972. Took with it a geologist who got to land on the Moon.
All of these were launched with the world’s until then largest rocket. (It was also used for Apollo 9 to test the equipment.) Why would they have done this if they had not been sent all the way to the Moon? There are still plenty of people which saw these launchings. Overall the means are something conspiracy talkers don’t think about.
There is an argument convincing me that the Moon landings were real. A hoax would be impossible to keep secret. NASA did not make everything themselves. Their equipment was made by a bunch of different companies. Each of these companies employed their own engineers. These in turn constructed equipment to take humans to the Moon. The companies employing them sent the finished to NASA. Say their engineers did not know of an imagined hoax. Then they would have constructed things which could be used for real. With functional equipment a hoax would not have been needed. Or if the engineers knew about it they would have been too many. The Apollo project was shut down more than 50 years ago. Had it been a hoax it would have been revealed long ago.
At the same time the Soviet Union failed with its own Moon project. The explanation they have given themselves is insufficient resources. Their budget was only 1/20 of the Apollo project’s. To me this appears sensible considering the deficiencies of the planned economy. In contrast the Soviet Union could track everything the US did. Everything above the horizon from their radar stations could be discovered by them. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. Virtually all their government’s secrets not having been lost came out.
The spacecrafts were tracked by radar on their way to and from the Moon. Not only by people in the US and the Soviet Union. But by organisations on several other countries too. Apollo 8 was even seen by telescope from France. The broadcasts from Apollo 11 could moreover be monitored. They were intercepted in Britain, Italy and West Germany. There were still more observations even from amateurs. Such don’t let themselves be controlled.
Some claim that humans can’t cross the Van Allen belts. The radiation concentrated there is overestimated by individuals using this argument. All radiation is not comparable. What is found there is particle radiation which is not that penetrative. One centimetre (2/5 inch) of polyethylene plastic blocks the worst of it. Moreover, they were passed in only four hours. Then they had several days outside the Van Allen belts. The exposure was no worse than the human body can cope with. But they had dosimeters on them for safety’s sake. This way NASA knew how much they were in fact exposed to.
When Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon he filmed himself. The TV camera was on a metal bar which could be folded out from the inside of the moon lander. The bandwidth to send to the Earth was unfortunately very limited. To be able to send moving images a special camera was built for the purpose. It filmed in black and white and with lower resolution. Moreover, it took only 1/3 as many frames per second. In this way the amount of information could be reduced by 95%. This moving image was shown on a TV also built especially for this purpose. The monitor in turn was filmed by a common TV camera. Hence the fuzzy black and white image.
At later Moon landings higher bandwidth was available. They could for this reason be shown more clearly and in colour. If one plays these recording at double pace movements may look like on Earth. However, the Moon dust moves as it does without air resistance. (The air pressure on the Moon is negligible.) It does not swirl up as it would do in air. Faking this would require a vacuum chamber orders of magnitude larger than existed.
At the same time people has claimed flags fluttered on the Moon. They in fact only moved when someone had just touched them. Otherwise there are folds in the fabric having been misunderstood as fluttering. The flags used were made from nylon. These may look sunlit even if they are lit from behind. Overall light and shadows are something which has been misunderstood. Have they never been to a room with overlapping light sources? Multiple light sources give multiple shadows, not inconsistent shadows. The shadows seeming inconsistent are due to a perspective effect and that the ground was uneven.
People has pointed out that the stars are not visible on the photos. Apparently they expect one to always see the stars in space. This is something film and TV has fooled people to believe. In reality it is about the photo’s exposure. Get outside a starry night together with someone in white clothes. Try to photograph him or her standing underneath a streetlight. The stars are not shown unless the image at the same times becomes far too light. The atmosphere does not matter that much.
Otherwise the photos are claimed to be far too good. The Moonwalkers had their cameras stuck to their chests. It goes without saying that most can’t have been particularly good. But the astronauts took thousands of images which are freely available if one knows where to look. Those which use to be published is just a small selection. People have simply picked out the best.
When the Americans were on the Moon they took with them loads of rock. This is about a combined weight of 381 kilograms (842 pounds). This can be compared to the Soviet Union which launched three robotic probes. Together these have taken home only 301 grams (11 ounces). Less than 10 years ago China sent two of their own. These took with them home 3 1/3 kilograms (8 pounds). Moon rocks can neither be forged as easily as some think. The difference in geology is too great to fool geologists.
In 2007 the Japanese mapped the Moon’s surface from satellite. Based on their data its terrain can be recreated. This matches the photos taken by the Americans. Three years later the Chinese sent a satellite with a better camera. It took detailed enough images to see left behind parts of moon landers and buggies. After another eleven years the Indians repeated this. I consider their images independent verification.
Eventually there is something called retroreflectors. Seven such are found on the Moon. Four of the retroreflectors has been put there by Americans. Two were placed by the Soviet Union and the last one by China. All send back light in the same direction as it came. This is a matter of optics working entirely passively. These will continue to function until the forces of nature break them down.
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