Strangest Mysteries of the World and Beyond !

Moon Landing Conspiracy?

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Moon Landing Conspiracy?

On July 16, 1969 three men, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin, after a year of training for this moment, waited anxiously 363 feet above the ground inside the top of the towering Saturn V rocket, to begin mankind’s most historic journey to landing on the moon. Or did they?

The 2 month-long celebrations and parades when they returned back to Earth and the 3 week quarantine that the astronauts underwent certainly suggest that the Apollo 11 moon landing mission was a success and an epoch making milestone. Yet for many years now, skeptics speculate what really happened in the Apollo 11 mission during its 4 day voyage and whether the 21 hours and 37 minutes that were spent on the moon, really happened on its surface.

Why would the U.S. government fake a moon landing? Conspiracy theorists allege that the moon landing hoax was a cold war phenomenon intended to deceive the Soviet Union into believing that the U.S. was technologically superior to it.

The Soviets had already beaten the United States in sending a human into orbit, so a claim to a moon landing would simultaneously restore U.S. pride and intimidate the communists.

Claim made-

When the astronauts are putting up the American flag, it waves. How? As there is no wind on the Moon.

Debunked-

The flag is held up by a horizontal bar and simply moves when it is unfurled and as the pole is being fixed into position by the astronauts. The flagpole is light, flexible aluminum and continues to vibrate after the astronauts let go, giving the impression of blowing in the wind.

Claim made-

No stars are visible in the pictures taken by the Apollo astronauts from the surface of the Moon.

Debunked-

The Apollo landing takes place during lunar mornings, with the Sun shining brightly. The stars are not bright enough in this light to be captured in the photographs.

Claim made-       

No blast crater is visible in the pictures taken of the lunar landing module.

Debunked-

The landing module touches down on solid rock, covered in a layer of fine lunar dust, so there is no reason why it would create a blast crater. Even if the ground were less solid, the amount of thrust being produced by the engines at the point of landing and take off is very low in comparison to a landing on Earth because of the relative lack of gravitational pull.

Claim made-

Another plain evidence photograph of the moon landing hoax is one of a headshot of Buzz Aldrin. Neil Armstrong is reflected in the background in Aldrin’s visor. Yet he is too far away to be taking a photograph and doesn’t appear to be holding anything. Since only two astronauts walked the moon, Neil and Buzz, who took the picture?

Debunked-

According to Phil Plait, president of the James Randi Educational Foundation, the astronauts had cameras mounted to their chests, and that is what Neil Armstrong took the picture of Buzz Aldrin. Since the visor was curved severely, distance cannot be properly judged and Neil was actually much closer to Buzz than what is seen in the photograph.

Claim made-

The landing module weighs 17 tons and yet sits on top of the sand making no impression. Next to it astronauts’ footprints can be seen in the sand.

Debunked-

The layer of lunar dust is fairly thin, so the landing module sits on the solid rock. The dust, whilst blown away by the blast from the descent engines, quickly settles back on the ground and is under the astronauts when they begin their moonwalk.

Claim made-

The footprints in the fine lunar dust, with no moisture or atmosphere or strong gravity, are unexpectedly well preserved, as if made in wet sand.

Debunked-

The lack of wind on the moon means the footprints in fine, dry lunar dust aren’t blown away in the way they would be if made in a similar substance on Earth.

Claim made-

When the landing module takes off from the Moon’s surface there is no visible flame from the rocket.

Debunked-

The rockets in the landing module are powered by fuel containing a combination of hydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide, which burns with no visible flame.

Claim made-

If you speed up the film of the astronauts walking on the Moon’s surface they look like they were filmed on Earth and slowed down.

Debunked-

The best you can say is: yes, a bit, but not really.

Claim made-

The astronauts could not have survived the trip because of exposure to radiation from the Van Allen radiation belt.

Debunked-

This claim is largely based on a claim from a Russian cosmonaut. The short time it takes to pass through the belt, combined with the protection from the spacecraft, means any exposure to radiation would be very low.

Claim made-

The rocks brought back from the Moon are identical to rocks collected by scientific expeditions to Antarctica.

Debunked-

Some Moon rocks have been found on Earth, but they are all scorched and oxidized from their entry into the Earth’s atmosphere as asteroids. Geologists have confirmed with complete certainty that the Apollo rocks must have been brought from the Moon by man.

Claim made-

All six Moon landings happened during the Nixon administration. No other national leader has claimed to have landed astronauts on the Moon, despite 40 years of rapid technological development.

Debunked-

This is a favorite among conspiracy theorists because it needs no evidence but points the finger at the presidency of Richard Nixon. The fact is that after the Apollo landings, the race had been won and the money dried up. The USSR has no interest in coming second, and politicians on both side realized that lower-orbit missions had much greater commercial and military potential.

Claim made-

So Where IS That Infamous Flag?

Perhaps one of the most known and logical arguments about the moon landing that can be made to this day, is why are none of the things that were left behind on the moon (such as the United States flag, and part of the Eagle), visible when we have all these powerful telescopes on Earth AND in space?

Debunked-

Even the most powerful telescopes on Earth and in space (See a picture here) do not have the resolving power, which is the telescope’s ability to make us see really small details and see sharp images, to make us notice things that small. The smallest object that can be seen on the moon, with a telescope, is something about the size of a house.

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.Fact or fiction, what are your views?