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Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:06:56 GMT
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Top 10 Apollo Hoax Theories
By Robert Myers and Robert Pearlman
In the early days of the Cold War, three men claim they were chosen by
a powerful new government agency to undertake a historically perilous
journey. They claim this well-funded operation was staffed with the
best scientists and engineers using technology pioneered by the Nazis,
and they created the most powerful machine ever built.
In July of 1969, they claim, they climbed aboard an enormous rocket
assembled in a Florida swamp, and were sent hurtling at incredible
they landed on the Moon, got out, and walked around!
they have a bunch of black and white photos of unidentifiable persons
in bulky white spacemen costumes in a field of gravel (but curiously
without any stars in the black sky) -- and several bags of gray, dusty
rocks.
Put that way, the story of the Apollo program can sound pretty
far-fetched.
But why should we believe the stories? What evidence is there, really,
that the Apollo program landed men on the Moon and brought them back?
Phil Plait, an astronomer at Sonoma University in California, and the
Web master of BadAstronomy.com, has his reasons.
If I were trying to fake this, I would put stars in the image," he
said referring to the complaint made by hoax proponents that the
Apollo photos lack stars. If this had been an oversight, he said, it's
an amazingly stupid thing to have forgotten, considering the scope of
the "hoax."
Not to mention that with the way cameras work, photographing stars
under those conditions would have been nearly impossible.
"If you do know about physics and photographs, you can see these
arguments are all ridiculous," Plait said.
So why do people even give an idea like this a second thought?
"I'm not exactly sure," said Plait, "Michael Shermer is a renowned
thing inside of our brain, we have a need to believe."
"But one thing he leaves off, is that some of these things are just
believable. If you don't know much physics, these arguments might
sound convincing."
Besides, Plait says the political realities of the time would have
made a fraud of that scale almost impossible to pull off.
"We went to the moon to beat the Soviets. If the Soviets had suspected
that we faked these missions in any way, they would have been
screaming at the top of their lungs."
Number 10: Apollo Hoax Theories: Fluttering Flag
The Claim: The American flag appears to wave in the lunar wind.
The Science: If you look closely, you will notice the flag's edges are
pulled taut. This effect, which was done purposely as to not allow the
flag to just hang flat, it was created by inserting a stiff wire into
the fabric. The "flutter" was created as the astronauts worked to
erect the flag. As the wire was adjusted, "Old Glory" appeared to
wave.
Number 9: Apollo Hoax Theories: Glow-in-the-Dark Astronauts
The Claim: If the astronauts had left the safety of the Van Allen Belt
the radiation would have killed them.
The Science: The Van Allen Belts are created by Earth's magnetic
field, and protect the planet from dangerous solar radiation. The
belts collects this radiation, and traps it in a layer surrounding the
Earth. But unless you deliberately caused your spaceship to hover
within this layer, for many hours or days, the radiation exposure is
well below dangerous levels. The Apollo astronauts passed through the
Belts in less than four hours total for the trip. "It's not much more
serious than getting a chest x-ray," said Plait. Outside the belt, the
radiation drops to low levels that are only dangerous over extremely
long periods of time.
Number 8: Apollo Hoax Theories: The Shadow Knows
The Claim: Multiple-angle shadows in the Moon photos prove there was
more than one source of light, like a large studio lamp.
The Science: The astronauts were taking their photos on a hilly,
brightly-lit landscape while the Sun was close to the horizon. Imagine
taking a photograph of someone on a rolling, uneven field of snow
during a full, low-hanging Moon. The contours of the ground would
produce shadows of many different lengths.
Number 7: Apollo Hoax Theories: Fried Film
The Claim: In the Sun, the Moon's temperature is toasty 280 degrees F.
The film (among other things) would have melted.
The Science: No one was leaving bare film out on the hot lunar
surface. All material was contained in protective canisters. In
addition, at the time the Apollo missions landed, they were either at
lunar dawn or dusk. As a result, the temperature was more easily
manageable.
Number 6: Apollo Hoax Theories: Liquid Water on the Moon
The Claim: To leave a footprint requires moisture in the soil, doesn't
it?
The Science: Not always. If you take some dry fine-grained dust such
as talcum powder and dump it out, it's easy to make tracks in it that
hold their shape. The particles hold their positions due to the
friction between them.
Number 5: Apollo Hoax Theories: Death by Meteor
The Claim: Space is filled with super-fast micro meteors that would
punch through the ship and kill the astronauts.
The Science: Space is really amazingly big. While there are indeed an
uncountable number of tiny pieces of debris travelling through the
Solar System at speeds in the neighborhood of 120,000MPH, the volume
of space keeps the density low. The chance of any given cubic yard of
space having a micro-meteor passing through it is incredibly close to
zero. Additionally, the astronauts suits included a layer of kevlar to
protect them from any tiny fragment they might encounter.
Number 4: Apollo Hoax Theories:
The Claim: When the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) landed, its powerful
engine didn't burrow a deep crater in the "dusty surface."
The Science: Beneath the layer of dust, the Moon is made of fairly
densely-packed rock. What dust and loose dirt there was though, was
"kicked up" as referenced by the astronauts and captured in their
landing films.
Number 3: Apollo Hoax Theories: Phantom Cameraman
The Claim: How come in that one video of the LEM leaving the surface,
the camera follows it up into the sky? Who was running that camera?
The Science: The camera was controlled remotely from Earth.
Number 2: Apollo Hoax Theories: Big Rover
The Claim: There's no way that big moon buggy they were driving could
have fit into that little landing module!
The Science: The rover was very cleverly constructed to be made out of
very light materials, and designed to fold up to about the size of a
large suitcase.
Number 1: Apollo Hoax Theories: Its Full of Stars!
The Claim: Space is littered with little points of lights (stars). Why
then are they missing from the photographs?
The Science: If you've ever taken a photograph outside at night,
you'll notice that faint distant objects don't show up. That's not
because the air blocks them -- it's because the brightness of the
nearby objects washes out the film. In fact if you were standing on
the day side of the Moon, you'd have to somehow block the landscape
out in order for your eyes to adapt enough to pick out the stars.
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