Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Moon Landing Conspiracy Theory by Jordan George





            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'.”    
Space.com, Space.com, 26 Aug. 2012, www.space.com/17304-neil-armstrong-moon-fame-modesty.html.
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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