One small step for man, One giant hoax for mankind? (The Great Moon Hoax)

Member Name: ross1979

Product:	The Great Moon Hoax
Date:	19/08/01 (488 review reads)
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Did we really land on the moon between 1969 and 1972 or was it the biggest hoax known to mankind?

I think most of use quite like the theory that our successful yank friends faked the whole moon landing story. We must all be deep down conspiracy theorists. But an examination of evidence from both sides of the argument certainly swayed me towards the pro-landing veiwpoint. All this multiple shadow, flag fluttering, no stars talk seems to have a valid explanation.

Let's take a look at the major accusations which favour the viewpoint that the moon landings were faked:.

The USA were in a space race with arch rivals and fellow superpowers the USSR and, supposedly, they were losing. So, according to the conspiracy buffs, this is the main motive why the USA would want to create this hoax - to get their creditability back. After all, we know how proud the Americans are of their fluttering
stars and stripes.

But just because there was a reason why they would attempt to fake a moon landing if they were unable to do it in real life, does not provide an iota of evidence to suggest they actually did it. A project to land on the Moon and return home safely, whether faked or real, would require hundreds of people to be involved.
All the highly respected and creditable scientists and other staff at NASA would be required to tell lies for the rest of their lives if it were a hoax. Then there were the spectators - the thousands of people who showed up to see the space shuttle off, did they all lie too? Was there a giant gathering beforehand where everyone was told what to say? It all seems a little unlikely to me.

Then there's the film - full of mistakes apparently. Yes, despite the multi-million dollars and months of planning which would have had to have gone into a fake moon landing, the video comes out littered with mistakes.

1. The shadows of two astronauts were going in slightly different dir
ections, thus proving multiple light sources in a studio environment. Firstly, the varying directions were caused by one astronauts being on a slope and the other being on relatively flat ground. Secondly, dont you think with the time and effort which would be required for a fake film they might of thought about shadows and the lighting conditions on the moon before deciding to go ahead with lamps shining down all over the place?

2. You cannot see the stars in the pictures of the astronauts. Silly film producers again forgetting that stars might make the film look more realistic? I think not! Try the fact that normal photography cannot show a bright object in the foreground and a dim light in the background. The astronauts in their white suits with the sun reflecting off them would have been glaringly bright. Therefore, the exposure time and the opening of the shutter would have been reduced. To get the stars in shot, it would require a light sensitive film and the aperture would have to have been left open for a long time. Not easy to do at the same time with the same camera!

3. The flag was waving and there is no wind on the moon. Well, silly old NASA again. The greatest space scientists in the world had a bad day and forgot that the moon was windless? No, the astronauts pushed on the pole and twisted it in the soil as well as shaking it to make it look like it was waving. There would be no point in having a picture of the flag on the moon if nobody knew which country it was from.

4. Dangerous radiation would have hit the astronauts becuause the spacesuits did not protect them. The conspiracy buffs are somewhat correct here. Astronauts are exposed to radiation - it causes bright flashes in their eyes when they travel through space and it is very dangerous. But they do survive it and are willing to take the risk.

So thats some of the main lines of argument for the conspiracy theory - all quite easily dism
issed by common sense. But what about the arguments for the moon landing taking place.

1. People. Thousands and thousands of people. All the scientists, spectators, amateur astronomers who watch the plumes in space when the water was dumped from the spacecraft and the astronatus themselves. All these peoples accounts of what happened are in unison, they do not contradict eachother. It would be nearly impossible to get everyone to tell the same story and stick to it for the rest of their lives.

2. Dust in the film falls more quickly than you would expect on Earth. Obviously the absence of air on the moon means there is nothing to hold the air up. It would be difficult to explain this in terms of the fake film theory. Had they thought of this detail while forgetting about the whole wind on the moon thing?

3. The way the astronauts move on the moon. It looks nothing like the way we move on Earth, even slowed down or speeded up! They look exaclt like you would expect under low gravity conditions. At this point in time, a low-gravity sequence would be very difficult to fake this convincingly, if not impossible.

4. Moon rocks - Hundreds of pounds of the stuff! they brought it back and it is different to earth rock in a lot of ways. There is very little water trapped in their crystals. There are many tiny craters from meteor impacts - on the moon the tiny particles beat into the rocks like little bullets but on the earth they burn up because of friction in the atmposphere. Also, there is no clay in the moon rocks which is very uncommon for Earth rocks.

Imagine if the case was taken to court in a non-biased country. The thousands of witnesses, the solid scientific evidence and the most reasonable explanation compared to a few people who think they know better, some shaky and easily disproved evidence and an explanation which does not really make sense in many aspects.

I'm sorry conspiracy theori
sts, but the evidence is mounted up against you. You can pick holes in this evidence but you cant provide REAL evidence to the contrary. I had an open mind, but now logical thought has brought me over to the most logical conclusion. The moon landings were real! Or have the US government officials got to me too??

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