Neil
Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins didn’t land on the moon on July 16,
1969. At least that is the rumor that has been spread around for the past fifty
years. With the multiple videos and pictures that were developed, it is easy to
see why there are doubtful concerns for the historic moon landing. Neil
Armstrong and his team have denied these claims for many years, even punching
someone square in the jaw for talking about it to his face. Do these claims
against the moon landing hold any valid ground or are they simply outlandish?
Here are the conspiracy theories surrounding the landing:
1. How can the flag wave without any wind?
2. Why can’t you see the camera in the reflections of
helmets?
3. Why are the shadows not aligned with objects?
Let’s
dive deeper into this mystery and discover more about this landing.
Buzz Aldrin is an arrogant astronaut who
will stop at nothing to stand up for what he believes in. Aldrin was born in
the dead center of the North-East, in Montclair, New Jersey, surrounded by
like-minded individuals who were set on the attitude of principles and beliefs
over suspicion.
Aldrin is known to be generously
stubborn with the things that he believes in and doesn’t stand down in the face
of non-believers,
In a poll conducted by Ipsos on
behalf of C-SPAN in June 2019 revealed that 6% of Americans believe the moon
landing was staged – and even more respondents, 15%, said they don’t know if it
was real or fake. In the running for most famous of the deniers might be Bart
Sibrel, a 55-year-old Tennessee resident notorious for having been punched in
the face by Buzz Aldrin in 2002 after Sibrel confronted Aldrin in person,
calling him a liar, coward and thief. (McKelvey, 1)
Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed
on the moon on July 20, 1969, with Armstrong being the first man to take steps
on the moon proclaiming, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” (Armstrong)
Half a century after the famous moon landing occurred, despite other moon landings,
real moon rocks, and countless other evidence, there are still theorists who
doubt the authenticity of the event. One of the most popular beliefs is that
the landing was filmed in a Hollywood studio. Or, even that the government and
the CIA are covering the arrival up to try to fool Americans. Sibrel, the
theorist who was punched, had put together “serious” evidence that the landing
was faked by Nixon. He supposedly had recordings, photos, and interviews that
all disproved the moon landing. Buzz Aldrin took these words as a threat to his
beliefs and stood up for himself. He attacked Sibrel and was not prosecuted due
to police feeling as if Aldrin was provoked.
Buzz Aldrin is encouraging for the
lives of Americans and proves that anything is possible if you have confidence.
Aldrin mentioned in a recent interview that he was destined to fly.
Ever since Buzz Aldrin was a little
boy, he knew that he wanted to do something meaningful in life with aviation
and his best bet was through the military,
Well, there's absolutely no doubt
that from the first memories that I have of an airplane ride at age two that I
was impressed with aviation, airplanes and the heritage, in a way, that my
father's career had established. It just took a little time for me to absorb it
all, but it's really what motivated me to, I guess, feel a security that that's
where I would end up. So, I didn't have to pave my way into that. I just knew
that's what I would do. (Aldrin 1)
Aldrin was a teenager during World
War II, which meant that he was the perfect age to join the air force and learn
how to fly. There was not an Air Force Academy back then, so Aldrin went to
West Point than from there went into the Air Force. Aldrin always believed that
it was his goal to change the world, and he knew he could do that by becoming
an astronaut and attempting to discover space as it had never been discovered
before. Aldrin knew that it was humanity’s goal to reach a point where we leave
earth and go to the object in the sky that we called the moon and walk around
on it. He knew that that was the way that he wanted to change the world and
made that his goal. With his ShareSpace Foundation, Aldrin wants to be able to
share his experiences of space with the rest of the world. He organizes people who
have visited space to talk to people that haven’t to give them that vicarious
experience of being an astronaut. Aldrin also wants to help with education by
teaching kids in classes K-12 to work together just like he and his crewmates
did back in 1969. Aldrin also had a dream of one day writing a book and guess
what he did: wrote a book. He wrote about a person of celebrity status stepping
down from their podium and becoming a humble everyday citizen.
In the famous moon landing of 1969, there were several
conspiracies that developed. The first of the many theories is the discrepancy
of the U.S. flag waving without any wind (“NASA Moon Landing: Why Did the Apollo 11 Flag Wave and Flap
in Space?” 1). As simple physics should intale, a flag planted in a place where
there is little to no atmosphere shouldn’t move or “flap in the wind”. “A
leading conspiracy theory decrying NASA’s achievement claims the US flag
flapping around in the vacuum of space is evidence of the Moon landing being a
hoax” (1). The NASA Space Center explains the flag appearing as waving because
of the disturbance in the flag when it was planted into the ground. (NASA Space
Center 1). In addition to the disturbance, the length of the flag is supported
by a horizontal bar that prevents it from drooping over time. Around 45 percent
of the people that were surveyed over the past week said that the moon landing
was faked because the flag was moving.
The second conspiracy is how you cannot see the cameras
that are supposedly filming the moon landing from the moon in the reflections
of the helmet. (Little
1). Normally when filming glass or another material that is similar, you can
see the device that is recording in the reflection. “In one of the pictures
from the moon landing, you can see Armstrong clearly reflected in Aldrin’s
visor. Some skeptics have pointed out that Armstrong does not appear to be
holding a camera, so someone else must be taking the picture” (1). Some of the
experts say that a handheld camera would be too bulky and akward for Neil
Armstrong to carry and manipulate. So he had a camera that was mounted on his
suit for ease of access which is supposedly covered up by his hands in the
famous picture of Armstrong in a helmet reflection. Around 11 percent of the
people that I surveyed said that they thought the moon landing was faked
because of the false helmet reflection.
The third conspiracy has to do with how the shadows do
not line up how they should with the objects that the astronauts were using. (Myers 1). The claim that multiple
conspiracy theorists have dealing with the shadows in the pictures and videos
is that there are multiple sources of light like a large studio lamp. The
science behind this claim is that “the astronauts were taking their photos on a
hilly, brightly-lit landscape while the sun was close to the horizon” (1). NASA
equates this effect to someone taking a photograph on a rolling field that was
uneven and covered in snow. This conspiracy could also link to the fact that
none of the pictures have any other stars or planets in the background. Around
9 percent of the people that were surveyed said that the moon landing was faked
because of the inproportionate shadows.
All three of the conspiracy theories tie together, so it
is very possible that they were mistakes when filming the 1969 moon landing.
All of these conspiracies can be linked to either mistakes made by the team
that was instructed with filming the “landing” or post-production editing.
Around 35 percent of the people that were surveyed all agreed that the moon
landing was not faked with a resounding 65 percent agreeing that it was faked.
These statistics show that there is something viable about these conspiracies.
And if the moon landing truly was faked could it be kept a secret for 50 years?
Sometimes it is fun and
natural to go against the grain and believe that a popular event is “faked” or
“set up”. It happens all the time with popular sporting events and is very
prevalent in the moon landing. Even with most conspiracies have been disproven,
there are still some that prevail:
1.
How can the flag wave without any wind?
2.
Why can’t you see the camera in the
reflections of any helmets?
3.
Why are the shadows not aligned with any
objects?
After examining these
conspiracy theories, I believe that the moon landing was not faked but there
are still some doubters.
MLA
Final Works Cited
T “Buzz Aldrin.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc., 3 Oct. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Buzz-Aldrin.
S Kettley, Sebastian. “NASA Moon Landing: Why Did the Apollo 11
Flag Wave and Flap in Space?” Express.co.uk, Express.co.uk, 19 July 2019, www.express.co.uk/news/science/1140849/NASA-Moon-landing-flag-Apollo-11-why-flag-wave-flap-NASA-hoax-conspiracy.
T Little, Becky. “The Wildest Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories,
Debunked.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 10 June 2019, www.history.com/news/moon-landing-fake-conspiracy-theories.
S McKelvey, Olivia. “Conspiracy Theorist Punched by Buzz Aldrin
Still Insists Moon Landing Was Fake.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information
Network, 21 July 2019, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/20/man-punched-buzz-aldrin-still-says-moon-landing-fake/1784847001/.
S Myers, Robert. “Apollo Moon Landing Hoax Theories That Won't
Die.” Space.com, Space, 2 Sept. 2011, www.space.com/12814-top-10-apollo-moon-landing-hoax-theories.html.
P “Transcript from an Interview with Buzz Aldrin.” Reading
Rockets, 12 Aug. 2013, www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/aldrin/transcript.
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