Is it
actually possible for the moon landing to have been faked? There are plenty of facts that could point to
either outcome of us landing or not. The
Apollo 11, the rocket which made it to the moon, landed on July 20, 1969. The first man on the moon was Neil Armstrong.
During this time period, space exploration was very popular which caused the
‘Space Race’ between the United States and the Soviet Union. The two countries were always trying to one
up each other. It would make sense to
fake a moon landing in order to beat the Soviet Union. There was a picture
taken of Neil Armstrong planted the American flag into the moon’s surface. Skeptics of the moon landing have come up
with a conspiracy that the moon landing was actually faked. There are four main reasons that people
believe this event was faked based on the picture of the moon landing. These reasons include: the flag was flapping,
there were no stars, there was a rock with the letter ‘c’ in it, and there was
visible lighting equipment. Now let’s
explore these conspiracy theories.
Being the first man to walk on the
moon, Neil Armstrong is looked upon as a hero in American history. Neil Armstrong is described as a humble hero
(Spector 1). He would never be
comfortable in the spotlight, but when it came to life or death situations, he
knew what to do (1). Before he was an
astronaut, he was a naval pilot in the Korean War(1). Most of the missions that he went on were very
risky and could have cost him his life (1).
It took plenty of courage to have done everything that Neil Armstrong
did. Here are some of the close calls
for Neil Armstrong as a pilot and as an astronaut. When Armstrong was 21 years old, he was
flying a jet during the Korean War, and he was hit hard (1). Trying to gain control of the jet, he lost
the right wing of his jet (1). Luckily,
he guided the jet to safe territory and this when he ejected over land where he
was rescued by one of his friends (1).
While Armstrong was testing a plane that could hit speeds that were six
times the speed of sound, he flew past the landing field at the Air Force
base(1). The skilled pilot was able to
land on a lakebed near to the base without striking some of the trees in the
area (1). A few days after this event,
Neil Armstrong was testing a different kind of jet, but this time he had a
passenger with him (1). The passenger,
Chuck Yeager, told Neil that the landing site was not safe to land on at the
time because of the weather (1).
Armstrong was still determined to fly, and they ended up getting stuck
in the mud (1). Another example of
Neil’s courage was this one time when he tried to land an X-15 jet, the landing
gear retracted (1). Armstrong had to
abort that landing and make an emergency landing at Nellis Air Force Base
(1). Those were some of his experiences
as a pilot. Now, these are a couple
examples of Armstrong’s courage as an astronaut. In 1966, Neil Armstrong was on his first
mission in space as the command pilot of the Gemini 8 (1). They are in the process of docking to another
vehicle when their spacecraft started spinning uncontrollably (1). This caused Neil Armstrong to land the Gemini
8 in the Pacific Ocean (1). Another
incident happened while Neil was training for the moon landing. He was test driving the lunar landing
research vehicle when he was almost killed (1).
Neil Armstrong was able to jump out of the vehicle before it crashed and
exploded into flames (1). These are just
some examples of Armstrong’s courage that we know of.
Another one of Neil Armstrong’s qualities
was that he was very smart. One of the
main reasons that Neil was smart was because his mother would spend countless
hours reading with her eldest son, Neil Armstrong (Bond 1). When he reached second grade, his reading
level was that of a fifth grader’s reading level (1). This allowed him to skip second grade. He attended Wapakoneta’s Blume High School,
and it was here that Armstrong excelled in his mathematics and sciences classes
(1). Neil would spend time outside of
school to get better at calculus (1).
There were even times when if the teachers were sick or absent, he would
sub for them (1). Besides school, Neil
Armstrong was involved with the Boy Scouts, played the piano and baritone, and
stared through telescopes to look at space (1).
When Neil was 17 years old, he won a Navy scholarship and started
attending Purdue University (1). After
two years at Purdue, he was called into active duty (1). This was when he was apart of the Korean War
(1). After the Korean War, Neil went
back to Purdue in order to finish his aeronautical engineering degree (1).
Of course, in order to be an
astronaut, you must have a desire for that field. Neil Armstrong’s interest in flight started
when he was two years old. His family
went to the Cleveland municipal airport (Bond 1). He ended up getting on his first plane ride
just a few years later (1). This is what
sparked his interest in flight. During
Neil’s childhood, he had built many airplane models at the age of seven
(1). When he was a teenager, Neil worked
as a ‘grease monkey’ at an aerodrome (1).
He saved up money for flight lessons (1). Neil Armstrong was so obsessed with flying
that he earned his pilot’s license before he earned his driver’s license (1).
Neil Armstrong did not enjoy being
the center of attention. He wanted to
keep a low profile which is surprising because most people enjoy the spotlight
when they become famous. This sets Neil
Armstrong apart from other celebrities.
In 1971, two years after the moon landing, Neil Armstrong left NASA
(Bond 1). He bought a dairy farm in
Ohio, and he became one of the engineering faculty members at the University of
Cincinnati (1). Even at these measures,
it was hard to avoid everyone who wanted to meet him. The police chief at the University, Ed
Bridgeman, said, “A lot of people just wanted to touch him” (1). Neil Armstrong rejected plenty of interviews,
autographs, endorsements, and public appearances (1). Despite all of this, Armstrong appeared on a
1979 TV advertisement for Chrysler cars (1).
He would rarely show up at large events such as a Sarah Vaughan concert,
a Sousa march, and a baseball game in Houston (1). Neil Armstrong threw the first ball at that
game (1). Another factor that made Neil
Armstrong different was that he did not cash in on his fame like most people
would do (1). Buzz Aldrin, who was on
the Apollo 11 as well, was very different than Neil Armstrong in that he made
many public appearances; he had Buzz Lightyear named after him, action figures
named after him, and even a movie made about his life (Wall 1). Neil, on the other hand, did not want
anything to do with pop culture (1).
Neil Armstrong made it clear about his objection to the Obama
Administration’s decision to cancel NASA’s moon-oriented Constellation program
(1). Most people who become famous bathe
in the spotlight, but Neil Armstrong was someone who wanted to lay low.
So how do conspiracy theories start? They start with people who are most likely
skeptical of why something happened the way it did or how it happened. These skeptics spend time researching
everything that was going on with the event.
Looking past evidence that is provided, they dig deep into behind the
scenes of certain events. These skeptics
will look for gaps in the story, and this is where they come up with scenarios
that possibly could have happened. Next,
they try to see if these conspiracies are believable. Finally, they start telling others about these
quote unquote new findings. Conspiracies
help some people make sense of events instead of going with what the evidence
may provide.
On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11
spacecraft supposedly landed the first men on the moon. Conspiracies about the moon landing were one
the first conspiracies that the American public paid attention to. Over the years, the theories about a faked
moon landing has spread all across America and over the world (Why do people
believe the moon landing hoax or other conspiracy theories? by Elizabeth
Svoboda). The moon landing was a big
achievement for the United States and their space exploration goals, but is it
possible that it was faked and totally made up to make themselves look
good? There are a few reasons why people
believe that we did not actually land on the moon. Some of these reasons include, the flag was
flapping in the video of the moon landing, the stars are not visible in the
picture of the moon landing, and a supposed rock with the letter ‘c’ on it (How
do we know the moon landing really happened? By Scott Davis). So let us dig into some of these reasons why
the moon landing could have actually been faked.
The flag
flapping on the moon is one of the main reasons that most people do not believe
that the moon landing was real. There
was a video of Neil Armstrong planted the flag on the moon, and after he
planted the flag, it started to flap (Why do people the moon landing hoax or
other conspiracy theories? by Elizabeth Svoboda). Plenty of people saw this and questioned why
the flag was rippling because there is no wind on the moon (1). People started to believe that we were very
desperate to beat the Soviet Union in the Space Race. It would make sense to stage a moon landing
to make ourselves look superior over the Soviet Union. Over the years more and more people buy into
this theory and discredit the Americans for landing on the moon on that
date. There are two reasons that have
proved why the flag appeared to flap.
The first is that when the flag was planted, the shock shook, and the
other reason is that the flag had ripples in it from it being folded throughout
the Apollo 11 (Why does the U.S. flag on the moon have ripples? by Gina
Treadgold). There was project that was
created by Congress to figure out how to send the flag into space and place it
on the moon(1). Congress assigned a
group of engineers from the Johnson Space Center, include Tom Moser (1). They discovered that in order to bring
something like a flag to the moon, you have to protect it from the elements of
space (1). The group of engineers
decided to put the flag in a heat resistant tube which was attached to the
ladder of the spacecraft so Armstrong and Aldrin could easily detach it once
they landed on the moon(1). Apparently
after the space voyage, Buzz Aldrin told the public what happened when they went
to set up the flag. Buzz Aldrin stated:
It took both of us to set it up and it was nearly a public
relations disaster. A small telescoping
arm was attached to the flagpole to keep the flag extended and perpendicular.
As hard as we tried, the telescope wouldn't fully extend. Thus the flag which
should have been flat had its own permanent wave. (1)
This explains why the flag appears
to have flap or had ripples, but conspiracy theorists use the
picture as proof that the moon landing was a fake (1). They think that the pictures and videos were
taking on some NASA space set that portrays the moon’s surface (1). So this factor of the conspiracy has been
disproven.
Another factor into leading people
to believing that the moon landing is a hoax is that you cannot see stars in
the pictures of the moon landing. This
would beg the question, if they are in space, there should be stars? It has been proven that when pictures are taken
in space, the light and dark contrast greatly (How do we know the moon landing
really happened? By Scott Davis). There
are pictures that NASA has taken of the earth from space, and in those
pictures, there are no stars (1). What
actually is happening is that the brightness drowns the dim light created by
the stars (1). This is another factor of
proof for the conspiracy theory that has been shut down.
The other major factor that is used
to prove the conspiracy is that supposedly a rock in the picture with the
letter “c” in it. This rock was found in
the Apollo 16 mission pictures instead of the Apollo 11 pictures (How do we
know the moon landing really happened? By Scott Davis). The conspiracy theorists used this evidence
to say that it was a prop in the faked moon landing that happened in a space
set at NASA (1). It has been proven that
in the original picture, the rock with the “c” is not there (1). It is believed that a small piece of hair or
thread fell into the copier while it was making copies (1). Yet, another part of the conspiracy has been
denied.
Most of these factors that play into
the main conspiracy that the moon landing was fake have clearly been proven
wrong. It is more believable to accept
that the United States actually landed on the moon rather than the idea that they
did not land on the moon. A survey was
done with some classmates, and they said that they believed that we landed on
the moon. At the end of the day,
conspiracy theories are interesting to explore and to see what you start to
believe after doing research.
In conclusion, the moon landing
conspiracy is another famous event that is trying to being disproved by
conspiracists. It is a controversial
topic in today’s society. The picture of
Neil Armstrong planting the flag on the moon was what led people to believe
that it was all a hoax. There were
different parts of the picture that led to this whole conspiracy. Most of these factors have been proved wrong
by science or by NASA. This should lean
towards the fact that the United States actually landed on the moon.
Works Cited
Spector,
Dina. “Neil Armstrong's Most Courageous Moments As A Pilot.” Business Insider,
Business Insider,
25 Aug. 2013,
Bond,
Peter. “Neil Armstrong: Astronaut and Scientist Who Became the First Man On.” The
Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 6 Sept. 2012,
Wall,
Mike. “Despite Moonwalk Fame, Neil Armstrong a 'Reluctant American Hero'.”
Davis, Scott. “How Do We Know The Moon Landing Really
Happened?” The National Space Centre,spacecentre.co.uk/blog-post/know-moon-landing-really-happened/.
Svoboda, Elizabeth. “Why Do People Believe the Moon
Landing Hoax or Other Conspiracy Theories?” The
Washington Post, WP Company, 20 July 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/07/20/why-do-people-believe-the-moon-landing-hoax-or-other-conspiracy-theories/?utm_term=.092207304aa1.
Treadgold, Gina. “Why Does the U.S. Flag on the Moon Have
Ripples?” ABC News, ABC News Network,
abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=97589&page=1.
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