Category: Moon Landing

Just over 50 years ago NASA launched Apollo 11 and landed on the moon. Yet through all this time conspiracy theorists still believe that this great achievement was faked. After digging a bit deeper into the issue some things might not seem to add up. Rob Bretherton is a psychologist who speaks about why we love conspiracy theories as a human race. He says, “We are drawn to the idea of conspiracy because it resonates with us; we understand the idea of people being self-interested and not having our best interests at heart and having hidden motives and getting together to do shady stuff.” So, the question is: did NASA really fake the moon landing, or do people just want to believe it’s fake? Conspiracy theorists bring up suspicions including the flag, the paranoia of the cold war, things not matching up in photos, and lost evidence.

When you hear about the moon landing being faked you probably hear about the flag theory. This theory is from when buzz aldrin planted the flag on the moon the flag appeared to be waving around which should not be possible in outer space because there is no atmosphere. Over the years NASA has come up with many reasons the first being that because Buzz turned the flagpole to get it into the ground it was staying in the position that it is in in the picture. Although their most recent one is that NASA designed a flag that would stay upright even though there was no atmosphere. In the image, you can see the rod that NASA put into the top edge to keep it upright, yet many conspiracy theorists still believe that it was faked because NASA didn’t make this point at the start.

On the twenty-fifth of May 1961 President John F. Kennedy made a statement a speech to the citizens of America he said “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade … not because they are easy, but because they are hard, … because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.” He promised that by the end of the decade the United States would put a man on the moon. This was a big promise and one that the United States could not afford to lose because of the Soviet Union’s goal to do the same thing. Throughout the sixties, the Soviets racked up more and more goals first artificial object in the earth’s atmosphere. The first living being in orbit, first human in space, first spacewalk while the United States trailed behind. But then at the end of the decade on the twentieth of July 1969, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Many conspiracists believe that it is just too convenient that they landed on the moon that closes to the end of the decade having made very little progress over the eight years prior.

Many things that NASA has said or shown to the public over the last 50 years has left the public and especially conspiracy theorists to believe that NASA’s stories are not straight. In 1994 NASA’s administrator admitted that if NASA was to find a way to the moon, they would have to overcome the effects of cosmic radiation even though they had done it a total of 6 times beforehand. Gus Grissom was part of the Gemini 3 mission and many others was so upset with the progress that NASA had made he hung a lemon off the ladder to the capsule. Later in 1967, Gus Grissom died in a test launch of the Apollo 1 mission. Gus’s family believes that NASA killed Gus because of his negativity to NASA. Many photos that NASA gave to the public have had flaws such as one of the astronaut’s footprints where the footprints created on the moon’s surface are different to those on the sole of the space boots. Also, conspiracy theorist says that shadows in photos should all match up because there is only one light source on the moon but instead the shadows go in different directions. In one photo there is a clear letter “C” on one of the moon rocks that theorists claimed is that it is part of a set. NASA has made claims that the letter “C” was not on the rock but instead on the negative that the photo was taken onto.

NASA has not defended many of the claims against them leaving the question “was the moon landing faked.” Although most people believe that the moon landing was legitimate still 10% of Americans believe that it was faked. Given the evidence, there are some things that you wonder why NASA have not commented on not giving them the upper hand. All in all, we can agree that there is a lot of room for debate on this topic and that the debate will continue for centuries.

The speech “In Event of Moon Disaster” by William Safire was written for the occasion that the moon landing did not go to plan, with the purpose of the speech being to inform the people that the Apollo 11 crew had passed, but they sacrificed themselves for science. Ethos was established with the speaker, Richard Nixon, who was the President of the United States at the time of the moon landing, not Safire. The direct audience were citizens of the United States, but it also addressed all the people around the world following the mission. Safire appealed to pathos throughout the entire speech, expressing how the world would mourn the losses, and that the crew would “remain the foremost in our hearts” (paragraph 6). The appeal to pathos influenced the tone of the speech, which was both melancholy and optimistic as there was hope for the future of space travel. Despite the lack of logos throughout the speech, it was very effective in achieving its purpose of comforting those who lost family members, all working on the mission, and the hundreds of thousands around the world impatiently waiting to find out if the mission was successful.

The Times published the article “Man Takes First Steps on the Moon” to inform the world about the specifics of the Apollo 11 mission. The speaker is the London Times, which establishes ethos, and article is written in the third person and is extremely descriptive. The speaker did not assume the reader had any knowledge on the events during the Apollo 11 mission, which affects the speaker-audience-text triangle. There is a lot of logos throughout the entire piece as it is a detailed narration of the events that made up the Apollo 11 mission. There are countless quotes from Armstrong and the mission control crew. The majority of the appeal to pathos is in the last section of the article in which the reaction of political leaders and ordinary people all around the world are recorded. The text is extremely effective in relaying the events of the Apollo 11 mission as it appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos.

Similarly, “The July 16, 1969 Launch: A Symbol of Man’s Greatness” by Ayn Rand captures the wonder of the launch through thorough descriptions. Rand wrote about the events before the launch and establishes ethos through her recollection of the launch. Rand created clear images like: “I found myself waving to the rocket involuntarily, I heard people applauding and joined them, grasping our common motive; it was impossible to watch passively…” (paragraph 3). This quote not only helps establish ethos, but it also appeals to pathos. She explains clearly her own, the crowd’s, and even the nation’s feelings of pride and amazement about the launch. The purpose of the launch was to express to the audience how the launch impacted so many, through the example of the speaker, creating Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle.

The political cartoon “Transported” by Herblock shows a man sitting on the moon looking intently at a television. His back faces the Earth, surrounded by a black cloud of “war, poverty, and prejudice.” The purpose was to get the readers of the Washington Post to realize that they should not turn their back on the problems the Earth was facing because of the moon landing. This also appealed to pathos as it shows that everyone’s attention was on space exploration and not on all of the problems closer to home.

In the poem written by Archibald MacLeish entitled “Voyage to the Moon,” MacLeish effectively illustrated the significance of the moon landing through its appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos. MacLeish was the Librarian of Congress during World War II, which establishes ethos. In reference to the moon, MacLeish stated, “you were a wonder to us, unattainable, a longing past the reach of longing…” (lines 12-14). These lines are a strong example of pathos as it expresses mankind’s extreme desire to learn about the moon. He then appealed to logos by saying that this desire was met after three days of travel. This poem was published the day after the moon landing, with the hopes of encompassing its importance.

One Small Step?

Neil Armstrong, the first man to supposedly land on the moon, once said: “Every sight in space is spectacular.” The question is, did he and America really land on the moon? Or was it a broadcasted fraud? When looking at the scenery, timing, science, etc it is clear that the United States did not land on the moon on July 20, 1969. When investigating the logistics and other aspects of the alleged moon landing all signs point towards it being a studio production. While many people fell into the trap and believe that it was not a hoax, almost 7% of Americans, rightfully, believe that the moon landing was indeed just a production (Schwartz).

After World War II ended in the mid-20th century, the Cold War began. This war involved the world’s two greatest powers at the time in the democratic capitalist country United States and the communist Soviet Union. Exploring space was a dramatic and important piece of the battle. Starting in the late 1950s, the “Space Race” became a key component in the war as each side tried to demonstrate the power of their innovation and their military capability in an attempt to prove that their government and economic systems were better (“The Space Race”). On October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik (Russian for “traveler”). The R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile was the world’s first man-made object and the first artificial satellite to go into the Earth’s orbit. Sputnik’s launch came as an unpleasant surprise to most Americans. In the United States, space was seen as the next step toward the future and it was crucial not to lose too much ground to the Soviets. Within the next year, in 1958, the United States launched Explorer I, its own satellite designed by the military. In July later that year the President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower, signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, establishing NASA (“The Space Race Timeline”). The United States had fallen behind in the Space Race and was rushing to try to beat the Soviet Union. When adjusted with inflation the United States had spent nearly $288 billion between 1960 and 1973 just trying to land on the moon (“How Much Did the Apollo Program Cost?”). Even with spending $288 billion the United States continued to trail in the Space Race.

On September 12th, 1959 it became evident that the United States had not only trailed in the race to space but was destined to lose. A little after midnight on September 14th, 1959, Luna 2, the Soviet Union’s spacecraft, had crashed on the moon 240,000 miles away. According to the NASA Historical Data Book “At that point, the closest that any American probe had come to the Moon was 37,000 miles” (Van). That same day a leader in the Soviet Union, Nikita Khruschev, arrived in the United States and was met by President Dwight Eisenhower. The success of Luna 2 gave him all the confidence he could ever need. He lectured the president and Americans on the success that communism brings using Luna 2 as his primary source of reasoning (Cavendish). Not only that, but only 3 weeks later the Soviets did it again even better! Luna 3 was launched on October 4th, the second anniversary of Sputnik 1, to swing around the far side of the Moon and send back the first fuzzy pictures of its dark side, which no one had seen before. It was an incredible development of navigation and it was now possible to draw a map of the Moon’s hidden side. All of this was happening while the American attempts were publicly failing. This allowed the Soviets to continue to propaganda and gave them leverage on the conversation about which country is more advance. When the leader of the Luna program passed away in 1966 the United States saw it as an opportunity to finally catch up in the race (Roose). America began pouring more and more money into failing attempts. Rather than investing more time and energy into a failing system and always having to catch up to the Soviet Union, many people believe that at this point America decided to focus on photographic and editing technology. The United States fell under the pressure and decided that it would be easier, faster, and cost-effective if they were to just film the “moon landing” in a studio (Godwin).

There are many ways to prove that the United States faked the moon landing. One of the well-known theories is about the flag. If one were to look at the American flag in a picture from the Apollo 11 mission, it appears to be flapping in the wind (Refer to image 1). But how can that be, since there’s no wind on the moon? Rick Fienberg, the press officer for the American Astronomical Society, who holds a Ph.D. in astronomy even admits that “If the astronauts had planted a regular flag on the moon, it would’ve hung slack like flags do on Earth when there’s no wind. This wouldn’t make for a very appealing photo”(Little). However, there are those who dispute this idea. NASA claims that they created these flags with a horizontal rod inside to make them stick out from the flagpole. They say “The Apollo 11 astronauts had trouble extending the rod all the way, and in still pictures, this creates a ripple effect that makes the flag look like it’s waving in the wind” (“Conspiracy Theories”). However, that same logic can be applied to if it were to be recorded in a studio as there is also no wind. The flag used in the production had a horizontal rod in it causing it to appear to be waving. Furthermore, the purpose of the moon landing was to show the advancements of the United States and to lift up the image of the country, so they produced the event and used that flag to make it appear to be waving because it would make the perfect picture. The production of the moon landing film was just one giant publicity stunt that the government performed to make it appear as if they had the first man to land on the moon.

Another way to prove that the moon landing was a hoax is the shadows on the moon. In images from the moon landing production, it is possible to see certain objects even though they are in shadow (Refer to image 2). However, if the sun were the only source of light, then this would be impossible! Therefore, the fact that you can see some objects in the shadow hast to be because of special production lighting (Keneally). This is why, in some images, you can make out a plaque that Armstrong and Aldrin left on the moon even though it’s lying in shadow (Miller).

A poll conducted in July of 1970 found 30% of Americans believing Apollo 11 to be a fake (Linden). At that time people knew the truth, they witnessed the United States feel pressured and rush a film. The Space Race led to the United States lying to the world all for a better public image of the country. With evidence from the flag and shadows, it is evident that the United States poorly produced a film of a fake moon landing to make them seem as if they were superior.

Sources:

1. Cavendish, Richard. “The Soviet Union Is First to the Moon.” History Today, History Today, 9 Sept. 2009, www.historytoday.com/archive/soviet-union-first-moon.
2. Godwin, Richard. “One Giant … Lie? Why so Many People Still Think the Moon Landings Were Faked.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 July 2019, www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/10/one-giant-lie-why-so-many-people-still-think-the-moon-landings-were-faked.
3. “How Much Did the Apollo Program Cost?” The Planetary Society Blog, The Planetary Society, 2019,www.planetary.org/get-involved/be-a-space-advocate/become-an-expert/cost-of-apollo-program.html.
4. Keneally, Meghan. “Why the Apollo 11 Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories Have Endured despite Being Debunked Numerous Times.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 18 July 2019, abcnews.go.com/Technology/apollo-11-moon-landing-conspiracy-theories-endured-debunked/story?id=64339363.
5. Linden, Sander van der. “Moon Landing Faked!!!-Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 30 Apr. 2013, www.scientificamerican.com/article/moon-landing-faked-why-people-believe-conspiracy-theories/.
6. 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.
7. Miller, Ryan W. “Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong Put a Flag on the Moon. Here’s What You Can and Can’t See in the Iconic Photo.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 22 July 2019, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/19/apollo-11-moon-landing-what-you-cant-see-buzz-aldrin-flag-photo/1570334001/.
8. Roos, Dave. “How Many Times Has the U.S. Landed on the Moon?” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12 June 2019, www.history.com/news/us-moon-landings-apollo.
9. Schwartz, Ken. “Millions Still Believe the 1969 Moon Landing Was a Hoax.” Voice of America, Voice of America, 20 July 2017, 7:07 am, www.voanews.com/usa/millions-still-believe-1969-moon-landing-was-hoax.
10. “The Space Race Timeline.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 2018, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/moon-space-race/.
11. “The Space Race.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 22 Feb. 2010, www.history.com/topics/cold-war/space-race.
12. Van, Nimmen. Jane and Leonard Bruno. ‘NASA Historical Data Book, 1958 – 1968 Vol 1: NASA Resources.’ NASA Historical Series. Washington, D.C. 1976.

It is not too late to go straight to the point. If you call OMEGA Super master the planet’s greatest chronograph, I don’t think there is any doubt. Because from the perspective of landing on the moon, no chronograph can compare with Super master. Super master has been on the moon, while other watches have not. For this reason, OMEGA is the world’s most popular and best-selling chronograph. The important reason is that OMEGA is super-powered, and it is always in mass production, and the price is not so high, so the circulation is very large, and there are many people to buy.

Super master is actually divided into two types, one is manual super-master, and the other is an automatic super-master.

The OMEGA Moonlight Superman refers to the manual override of the manual chord chronograph movements of the 321/861/1861 (different movements used in different ages). An unusual practice of OMEGA is that from the 1957 manual è to the world, to today’s 2017, OMEGA is always producing manual moon landing super. In contrast, Rolex stopped the production of the manual winding Daytona after the automatic winding of the Daytona, so there is only one type of Daytona in the current Rolex catalog, while OMEGA has both manual and automatic. Super fighter. Because of the continuous production and maintenance of the technical characteristics of the original watch, the manual moon landing super-buy we now buy on the market is completely a direct descendant of the lunar watch, pure blood. At the same time, because of continuous mass production, this allows OMEGA to manually maintain a reasonable price for the moon, as long as you are willing, you can buy a pure OMEGA moon table at any time and at no cost. (The benefit of OMEGA’s approach is that it benefits the majority of players; the downside is that the value of many antique super fighters has shrunk. The current public price for the manual moon landing super is 30,000 or 40,000 yuan)

The core of OMEGA’s story of the Moon’s Super Moon is that it was brought to the moon by Armstrong (the watch was left in the space capsule). Everyone knows this story, I will not repeat it. What I am going to do today is to share with you the methods of distinguishing various versions of the Moon. Because OMEGA has introduced various versions of the Moonlight Super master, different versions of the Moonlight Super master have different characteristics, which symbolize the different moon landings.

Feature 1: Broad Sword

• Features Source: The first generation of OMEGA Super

In 1957, OMEGA’s first generation of super chronographs was born. The biggest feature of the first generation of super chronographs is the ‘wide sword pointer (hour hand)’. We can clearly see that the hour hand of the first generation OMEGA Speedmaster Chronograph is a huge ‘arrow’. This ‘arrow’-like hour hand is called the ‘wide sword pointer’. In the current market, some watch manufacturers sell OMEGA watches, in order to promote the description, sometimes the old OMEGA hippocampus 300 meters diving watch pointer is called broad sword pointer because it is indeed like a sword, But this is wrong. Here, please pay attention to new players, the first big OMEGA manual super fighter ‘big arrow’ is the real ‘wide sword’, once in any super chronograph, see the watch’s hour hand is a huge ‘arrow’ That is, ‘wide sword’, then this super chronograph is based on the design of the first generation super tyrant in 1957.

Feature 2: Alpha Pointer

• Features Source: The second generation of OMEGA Super master (the first super-master into space)

The second generation of Super master was launched in 1959. The second generation of Super master is OMEGA’s first watch to enter space. Please note that it is into space and has not yet landed on the moon. Because when the astronauts entered the space, they wore an OMEGA second-generation super fighter. This watch is his personal belongings. The biggest feature of the second generation Super master is the change of the pointer. The ‘wide sword’ pointer is replaced by the ‘alpha’ pointer, which is the diamond-shaped slender pointer. What we need to pay attention to is that we can see that not only the hour and minute, the second generation OMEGA Supermaster’s timing, scoring, small seconds, all the pointers are alpha pointers (except the central timing big seconds). This is the biggest feature of the second generation of Super master. At present, a number of OMEGA manual super chronographs are on sale, using the characteristics of the second generation of super tyrants. As long as we see the alpha pointer, we can know that this watch is a second-generation super.

Feature 3: Rod pointer

• Features Source: The third generation OMEGA Super master (boarding the moon to the moon)

The third generation of OMEGA Super master is the moon landing super fighter on the moon. The story must be familiar to everyone. NASA hopes to prepare a watch for astronauts as a backup timing tool. Therefore, several chronographs have been selected from the United States for testing. OMEGA’s local US agents provide the third generation of Super master. Also tested with the third-generation Super master are Rolex, Longines, and Bulova. NASA tests these watches at 70 degrees, 93 degrees, minus 18 degrees, and humidity greater than 95% (each temperature lasts for several hours) and tests for 40G acceleration and vibration. Finally, Only OMEGA’s third-generation Super master is still running, and the other watches are gone, so the Super master and the astronauts were chosen to board the Moon together. The biggest feature of the third-generation super-master is that the pointer is replaced with a stick-shaped pointer. Note that on the watch, in addition to the central large chronograph second hand, the hour hand minute hand, and the sub-dial small hand are replaced with stick pointers. Currently, on the market, the moon is over the top, most of them are such pointers.

Feature 4: Crown Shoulder

• Characteristics of the source: the fourth generation of super fighter (the first time the professional word on the dial appeared super fighter)

At present, the OMEGA manual moon-going super-masters on the market are mostly based on the fourth-generation super-master. The fourth-generation OMEGA Moonlight Super is very similar to the previous third-generation Moonlight Super. The biggest difference is two. One is the watch crown and the chronograph button shoulder; the other is the professional on the watch surface. Professional) typeface. Among them, the shoulder guard is the biggest feature of the fourth generation super fighter and modern super fighter. In fact, starting from the fourth-generation super-master, the super master’s case is asymmetrical, because the right side of the case is thickened, forming a crown and a chronograph button shoulder. So once we see the moon-capped super-heavy shoulder with shoulder pads, we can know that this is a modern super-hegemony, and there is no super-hegemony for shoulder-shoulders. Let me give you an example. You can compare it. OMEGA is now selling the Super Dark Moon and Super Blaster 57. We can see that the Super Blaster 57 does not have a shoulder guard and uses the ‘wide sword pointer’. Obviously, this chronograph imitates the first generation super fighter; the dark side of the moon uses a stack pointer and has a shoulder guard, which is obviously a super-hegemon that draws on the modern (fourth generation) characteristics.

Feature 5: Rocket Needle

• Features Source: Alaska Planner

OMEGA has an Alaska plan after the fourth generation of the moon. OMEGA uses the name ‘Alaska’ to confuse business opponents in case others see through them. OMEGA is actually trying to develop a perfect space chronograph. Can withstand the low-temperature environment in outer space. So the prototype table was created through the Alaska plan. The Alaska Plan Prototype is characterized by the addition of a red aluminum casing (removable) to the outside of the watch, while the 30-minute chronograph hand and the 12-hour chronograph hand of the watch’s small chronograph dial use a special ‘rocket hand’. The Rocket Pointer is the biggest feature of the OMEGA Alaska Planner. Later, NASA canceled the Apollo 18 to Apollo 22 moon landing plan. So OMEGA’s Alaska Super master didn’t use it at all. Until then, OMEGA introduced a replica table. Therefore, as long as you see the ‘rocket pointer’ super game, it is the characteristics of the Alaska plan.

According to Fuller, “ The moon landing hoax” happened forty-nine years ago. NASA broadcasted the moon landing in 1969 and in 1972. When it was over, millions of people thought it was just a hoax. Therefore Conspiracy Theorists have been collecting some evidence that might prove that the moon landing was counterfeit. Many people question the moon landing and have Conspiracy theories because they have evidence, and details, and hope to prove NASA wrong.

People hold onto moon landing conspiracies because they want to believe it was bogus, they have collected exceptional evidence and they think they can prove NASA wrong. Moon landing conspiracies are still around because people want to believe it was fictitious. They thought it was just an act. They believed in two ways they made it look real. Conspiracy Theorists did 40 years of research and collected enough detail to prove the moon landing was not faked. The first way they thought was that NASA was using a green screen in the background and used props. The second way was that they used a fake moon in a studio, used props and used astronaut costumes, and used intricate lighting setups. There is still a lot more evidence to talk about that you might find fascinating

There are no stars in the background. When Conspiracy Theorists looked at NASA’S pictures of the moon landing there are no stars in the background. Sadly, the Conspiracy Theorists had gotten into an argument with the photographers and NASA. The argument was mostly about the photos and how there were no stars in the background. Furthermore, how they could have photoshop the photos or edited them. Maybe it was photoshop, only the photographers know what really happened.

Shadows are showing in the moon landing. Some viewers that watched the moon landing look at unusual shadows. The shadows of the astronauts are from different angles and lengths. People thought that there were different lighting views and various shades of objects. Wherever you stand there will be shadows. The flag flaps in the breeze. In the video of the astronauts, they are holding the flag. They are getting ready to put the flag in the ground, but there’s a slight breeze that you can barely see. On the moon, there should not be a breeze since there is no atmosphere. Since there was a breeze, they thought they used a fan or filmed it outside on a windy day.

The film looked very unusual. Some people have pointed out they have seen thin types of wires. They thought the wires were for making the scene that the astronauts were jumping and floating on the moon. By using these wires the wires were used for gravity. By doing this it showed how gravity would work when someone lands on the moon. In addition to Fox, NASA admitted in 2006 that no one could find the original tape recording. They could not find both of the moon landing films. NASA finally confessed that they erased the videos. They wanted to make the video quality better. The moon landing happened a very long time ago, it played an important part in history, but there are people who think that this is just a hoax and none of this happened. Through the different years of the moon landings, we know that there is superior evidence to show that maybe it was fake. We know that there are different sides alike, believers and non-believers. All of these people think differently from others. It is important for them to think who they can trust based on what evidence they have. We do not truly know if the moon landing was fake or not, but there was a lot of drama between NASA and the Conspiracy theorists. There are people who have different opinions on the landing. We will never know if it was a hoax or not only NASA knows.