"Did we actually send humans to the Moon in the 1960's? Of
course we did! But some people are claiming that NASA lied about
the Apollo program, that we faked the landings. Actually, it would
have been harder to fake the whole thing than to do it! But many
people are confused about it, and have asked NASA to clear it
up.
The current confusion began with a TV program called "Conspiracy
Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?" aired on February 15th, and again
on March 21st, 2001. The program interviewed people who doubted
NASA had the technology to make it to the Moon. They felt that the
USA was so eager to win the "Space Race" against the Soviet Union,
NASA acted out the Apollo space program in movie studios! They
claimed astronaut Neil Armstrong's historic first steps on the
Moon, planting the American flag, the bouncy Moon Buggy rides, and
even Astronaut Al Shepard's golf shot, were all fake.
But not only did they claim NASA faked the whole thing, but that we
did it very poorly! The so-called "experts" on Conspiracy Theory
pointed out a number of things they thought were "errors." Well,
let's look at a couple of them:
Stars in the Lunar Sky
Pictures of astronauts sent from the Moon don't include stars in
the dark lunar sky. How could that be? Did NASA's film makers
forget to turn on the stars? Most people who take photos know the
answer: it's hard to take a picture of something very bright and
something else very dim on the same photo. Ever watch a TV program
or movie with outdoor night scenes? Unless the movie producers fake
stars in the sky, or use special cameras, you just don't see stars.
The cameras are adjusted for the actors, and the stars in the
background are too dim to see. "
A Waving Flag
Everyone has seen the video of astronauts planting a US flag on the
Moon. You can see the flag flexing and rippling. How can that be?
There's no breeze on the Moon. But then, there's no atmosphere,
either. When the astronauts planted the flagpole they twisted it
back and forth to sink it into the lunar soil. On the Earth, that
would have made the flag "wave" for a few seconds, then stop. But
that's because the flag pushes against air as it flaps, and the air
slows it down. On the Moon, there was no air to stop the flag's
motion, so it continued, just as Newton's First Law of physics says
it should. So of course the cloth flag waved and rippled beneath
the metal rod holding it out.
