2. On July 16 1969 the world, worried, wondered and watched as three braved astronauts headed for the moon. Then five day later came that extraordinary moment in time, when Neil Armstrong took those first tentative, extraterrestrial steps. Eleven men followed in Armstrong's footsteps; each stride filling the earth bound audience with pride and confidence in scientific endeavor. But, did we really leap into the future or were we pushed into believing a big menagerie of special effects and make up? Did NASA pull off the biggest cover up in human history? This conspiracy has boggled the minds of many up to 20% of Americans today still believe that this is true.
3. The Conspiracy The Apollo Astronauts did not land on the Moon; NASA and possibly others intentionally deceived the public into believing the landing(s) did occur by manufacturing, destroying, or tampering with evidence, including photos, telemetry tapes, transmissions, and rock samples; NASA and possibly others continue to actively participate in the conspiracy to this day.
4. Photo 1:The Flag Wave Reason Thought Fake: The American flag appears to be flapping as if "in a breeze" in videos and photographs supposedly taken from the airless lunar surface. Truth Is: “The photo you see where the flag's moving is because the astronaut just placed it there, and the inertia from when they let go kept it moving," said spaceflight historian Roger Launius, of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.
5. Photo 2: No Photagrapher Reason Thought Fake: only two astronauts walked on the moon at a time, yet in photographs such as this one where both are visible, there is no sign of a camera. So who took the picture? Truth Is: “The cameras were mounted to the astronauts' chests,” said astronomer Phil Plait, author of the award-winning blog Bad Astronomy and president of the James Randi Educational Foundation.
6. Photo 3: Strange Lights Reason Thought Fake: those mysterious reflections come from studio lights on a production set. Truth Is: “It's highly unlikely NASA would make such an obvious blunder if they had spent millions of dollars to fake the moon landing,” Plait said.
7. Photo 4: Variety in Lighting Reason Though Fake: Aldrin is seen in the shadow of the lander, yet he is clearly visible. Hoax subscribers say that many shadows look strange in Apollo pictures. Some shadows don't appear to be parallel with each other, and some objects in shadow appear well lit, hinting that light was coming from multiple sources—suspiciously like studio cameras. Truth Is: there were multiple light sources, Launius said. "You've got the sun, the Earth's reflected light, light reflecting off the lunar module, the spacesuits, and also the lunar surface."
8. Conclusion Through out history there have been some quite crazy and also feebleminded conspiracies. From having Stephen King being the murderer of John Lennon to having reptilian extraterrestrial running the nation, the public has seen their share of these pop culture counterplots. Many of these conspiracies out are quite weird and can be tossed out the window of humanity, but some, like the photographs before, have made it into our everyday lives. Even though these photos have some explanation on how they are fake, there is a factual reason that is backed up by scientists. Like many hoax of history I believe this is hogwash and nothing but.
9. Bibliography "7 Craziest Conspiracy Theories." ArtsOnEarth - Best Cool News And Pictures!. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2011. <http://artsonearth.com/2009/01/7-craziest-conspiracy-theories.html>. Plait, Phil . "Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy: Bad TV ." Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2011. <http://www.badastronomy.com.html.> Than, Ker. "Photos: 8 Moon-Landing Hoax Myths--Busted."National Geographic News. National Geographic, 16 July 2009. Web. 16 Jan. 2011. <news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/photogalleries/apollo-moon-landing-hoax-pictures/>.
