Was The Moon Landing a Hoax ??

[ztwhite]

On this, the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 "allegedly" landing on the moon, I was curious what everyone's thoughts were surrounding the subject.

According to Wikipedia :

Apollo Moon Landing hoax conspiracy theories are claims that some or all elements of the Apollo Moon landings were faked by NASA and possibly members of other involved organizations. Some groups and individuals have advanced various theories which tend, to varying degrees, to include suggestions that the Apollo astronauts did not land on the Moon, that NASA and possibly others intentionally deceived the public into believing the landings did occur by manufacturing, destroying, or tampering with evidence, including photos, telemetry tapes, transmissions, and rock samples; and that the deception continues to this day.

There is abundant independent evidence for Apollo Moon landings and many commentators have published detailed rebuttals to the hoax claims.[1] A 1999 poll by The Gallup Organization found that 89% of the US public believed the landings were genuine, while 6% did not, and 5% were undecided.[2][3]

A new set of images published by NASA in July 2009, taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission show lunar landers (including that of Apollo 11) standing on the surface, science experiments and, in one case, astronaut footprints in a line between the Apollo 14 lander and a nearby science experiment. These images are the most effective hard evidence to date that the "landing hoax" theory is not grounded in fact

I find it hard to believe that NASA or our government would do such a thing, but there are certain events that were taking place in 1969 that compel people to think otherwise.

-- Vietnam : Our country wanted and needed good news, or better yet, great news. Landing men on the moon detracted people's thoughts from the war to how cool it was that America was the first country to touch the surface of the moon.

-- The Cold War : America's space program was in a heated fight with Russia to be the first country to set foot on the moon. Yes, Russia had sent an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 1959, but no living person had ever touched the surface until the US did it in '69. While the Cold War wasn't exactly in full swing like it became a few years later, part of me believes that NASA and our government may have staged the landing simply to one up the cosmonots.

-- The JFK Proclamation : In 1961, John Kennedy declared that the US would "achieve the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." As we should all know, JFK was assassinated in 1963 and part of me wants to believe that our government staged the landing simply to support a dead president's declaration, ironically, just in the nick of time.

Thoughts ??

 

[FromTheSouth]

First of all, the Wiki article says that there is some evidence that the landing is not a hoax. That is complete and utter bullshit. No one has to prove that it's not a hoax. Those who believe that it is a hoax have the burden of proof to show how it was faked.

I find this hoax theory to be false. There is no evidence whatsoever that points definitively to the landing being faked. Like all conspiracy theories, this one is based on leaps in logic and uneducated "experts" making claims that the easily influenced believe.

The National Geographic Channel and Mythbusters both addressed this theory. Both proved that there was no way the landing was faked.

The claims are ridiculous, ranging from the idea that it is impossible to leave a footprint on the moon, radiation, and solar flares. The questions that conspiratorialists raise are answerable by five year olds, much less NASA. They cite NASA's refusal to answer as proof that there was a hoax. I find it proof that NASA has no time for crackpots.

 

[Mr. TM]

I do not think that is was a hoax. If that was a hoax, then why have they not faked the Mars landing yet? The US has been planning on doing the expedition for years now, working off of Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic due to its similar topography and climate. I am sure with the CGI in the world now, we could make a video that resembles the Mars landing better than they did in the 1960s. And do Americans, or the global community even want us to land on the Red Planet?

Doing a hoax could potential save us billions of dollars, and back then the same story could have happened. So it makes financial sense to have faked it.

 

[Lee]

No way was it a hoax...do you believe that the USA would fake a moon landing and USSR not have anything to say about it?

Everything can be rebutted...the main argument is lots of shadows as there's only one light source...wrong there as the Moon itself is a light source!

The main proof that it wasn't a hoax...

[youtube]ZOo6aHSY8hU[/youtube]

 

[gd]

Those who believe the US moon landing was fake are batshit crazy. There is absolutely no evidence towards it. Furthermore, how would they have been able to fake it without someone coming out and telling the truth? Those who believe this is a consipracy are just crazy, plain and simple.

Also, the Buzz Aldrin video. For real

 

[GSM]

Actually the main arguments of the people that believe the Moon landing to be a hoax are the folloing :

- The flag is shaking, which means there had to be wind but on the moon is no air therefore no wind.

The Flag is shaking because the stick is made out of aluminium which bends when you move it and when you let go it shakes for some time, and because there is no air, it shakes longer than it would on earth and so the shaking is created. The fact that when the Austronauts pass the flag and it doesn´t move ,which it must have if there was air, is another proof that this argument is BS.

-The shadow of the Austronauts were different even though there was only one light source, which would mean that spotlights have been used.
BS, the shadows take different directions because of the hills the Astronauts are standing on.

- You can´t see any stars on the shots from the landing.

You can´t see any stars in the citiy either because it´s too bright so see any stars.


There are several other "arguments", but they all can be explained.

 

[klunderbunker]

As I'm known for saying around here, What's the point? Seriously, why would NASA and the government want to do this? It would have cost a lot of money just to fake everything, especially launching that rocket that did indeed go up. A friend of mine buys the conspiracy theory, yet he can't ever answer what I just asked. What would the US gain from faking a moon landing? One of my teachers got to meet Buzz Aldrin at a conference once and this was brought up. Aldrin was an old man but he was visably shaking with anger. It's one of mankind's greatest accomplishments, yet people have to try to take away the glory from the men that did it.

 

[Blue Chipper]

This is one of the most notorious conspiracy theories out there, and also one of the most ludicrous (well, the "flat Earth" thing trumps this by a land slide, but any way). There's evidence that Apollo 11 was real and not a hoax, but not the other way around. They brought back space rocks that wasn't similar to any known to Earth. Japan helped them, and watched them take off, which would be very hard to fake because multiple people have to be in on the hoax and not say anything. Furthermore, the collection of photographs and video footage is seemingly authentic.

Also, like KB stated, what in the world would be NASA's motive for pulling something like this off? It would probably be more expensive, time consuming, and more difficult. If the hoax were real, then why hasn't any of the many individuals involved revealed it or leaked it as being such and why do they protest and act like it was real? Additionally, the hoax believers have to assume they built a large studio with no gravity and all these small details back in 1969, at a time special effects were nearly or completely void. Every hoax argument has basically no evidence and can be simply disproved, such as the flag moving, lack of stars, foot print, etc. whilst no one can disprove that Apollo 11 was legit and had significant evidence.

 

[Razor]

There is only one real reason why the US would fake a moon landing. And that would be that the US was incapable of making it to the moon, despite funneling massive amounts of money into the NASA program. After all that money, and the fear that Russia would take over space to spy on the honest citizens of the United States, one would find a very good reason to fake the moon landing. You don't want your citizens in an uproar because the commies have dominated outer space and could be viewing everything they do. So, you lie. However, that isn't proof at all that it's a fake. Motive alone does not a criminal make.

Every bit of evidence you see put forth about the moon landing hoax is rubbish. The flag shaking? Please. It's a fucking vacuum out there. If the pole gets to shaking, it's going to shake loads longer. No stars? You can't see any while you're in well-lit towns...and I'm pretty sure the light from the Sun is plenty bright enough to block out the light from other stars.

I can't wait to see people claiming that the recent stupidity over in NASA about erasing the original videotapes of the Moon Landing was to cover-up the holes in the original that conspiracy theorists saw. Or, you know. The NASA people were jackasses and never labeled "Hey. Don't erase these. Original copies of the historic moon landing."

 

[FromTheSouth]

The hoax ideas are just ridiculous. I posted this earler.

The only reason to hoax it would be to rub our superiority in the faces of the commies. If the Soviets were getting close, our faking it would take the shine of their doing it. Of course, our doing it creates the same shine removal.

Bluechipper brought the involvement of the Japanese to my attention. Remember, it was only 25 years after we killed a half million Japanese civilians. If we faked it, I have to believe that there would be enough Tojo loyalists to bring us down.

There is no way way that we faked it. The event was to be the source of absolute national pride. There is no way that a seminal event, like this one, could be faked. If the hoax was ever discovered, it would bring down the space program, spike distrust in the government, and tarnish the legaacy of JFK and LBJ. The Russians beat us into space, and we took that as a challenge to beat them to the moon. The next race is to Mars, and I would say that we have a solid lead in that as well.

 

[HBK-aholic]

I don't think it was a hoax. I mean, could it have been? Sure, I guess. But ther isn't really a point to it, and they'd have been found out sooner or later. Everyone is so cynical about things now, can they not just accept America did a good thing and put a man on the moon? Is it really so hard to believe considering all the other things we can do?

 

[Spaceman Spif]

I've always loved the absurdity of this conspiracy. I find it even more funny that there are those out there who believe it. Don't get me wrong, people have the absolute right to believe whatever they want, but that doesn't make them right or smart to believe it.

I mean sure you could punch some holes in the whole moon landing, but then again if you truly believe in something so much, not matter what facts you are faced with, you'll still be able punch holes in something. So unfortunately even though the moon landing is very much real and it very much happened, there are nutcases out there that will say it never did, just like there are some out there who believe the whole Vietnam Conflict was made up... just don't say that around the Veteran's of Foreign War posts.

So no the moon landing was not a hoax, America had no reason to fake it, there would be no gain. Could you imagine the fallout from our own country and other countries around the world if it was discovered to be fake? So it's not even worth the risk. Plus why waste all that money and have nothing come out of it? It's just ludicrous to believe that a country would fake something so historical and monumental as landing on the moon.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

Why would they fake it? What a ******ed question. To convince people that they beat the Russians of course!!!!!! The Russians had already put the first man in space, so the US had to beat them, by any means necessary.

I don't think it was faked, but i doubt that what you are witnessing in the video is man's first steps on the moon. Surely they had to get out to make sure the camera worked before they started recording?

 

[Tastycles]

The reason they'd fake it is very obvious, because the USSR had done everything first in space, and they had sent two astronauts to the moon, but they died on the way. However, motive does not imply guilt, and it certainly doesn't here.

There is literally no evidence that isn't refutable for it being a hoax, and quite a lot of evidence that they went there. I was half expecting a looad of moronic conspiracy theories here, and am glad to see there aren't any. The most telling proof is that in order for this to have been faked, there would have had to be literally hundreds of people involved. There is no way that all of them would have been kept silent. Seriously, if someone had proof of the moon landing being faked, they could have lived like a king by defecting to the east and exposing it.