The Moon Landing was Fake

This conspiracy theory may seem a bit far fetched, but a multitude of evidence has been pointed out. A lot of skeptics have “proved” and “disproved” this theory, but questions still remain.

There are 5 core categories of this theory: the motive, the media, the lack of artifacts, and the “confession.” Each category consist of different points that “prove” that the moon landing was fake.

The Motive:

The Cold War was emerging after World War II. The Russians had claimed that they were going to be the first to put a man on the moon. Trying to prove themselves, the American government had said that they were going to be the first, and do so within the next decade.

Overtime, a race had begun between the Americans and Russians. Both had been trying to make it to the moon first, but one was slacking. NASA hadn’t been making the technological advances that the Soviet Space Program had accomplished so far. The theory comes in when people make the accusation that because NASA and the American Government wanted to win the race, they faked the whole mission.

Gus Grissom, an astronaut that was supposed to take part in the Apollo 1 mission, was publicly critical towards NASA when comparing their advances to the Soviet Space Program. Before the Apollo 1 mission, Gus Grissom and the other two astronauts in the Apollo 1 mission “conveniently” perished in a fire shortly before take off. Many conspiracy theorists believe this is the work of NASA/the US Government, and not just a weird coincidence.

The Media:

On the images taken “on the moon,” some crosshairs (small, spaced out crosses in rows/columns) from the camera appear to be behind equipment that is supposedly sitting on the mood. The crosshairs are on the lens, in front of the camera; The only explanation for something to be in front of a crosshair is if it were superimposed (edited) onto the image.

On the moon, since the lighting is miles away, shadows should be parallel. This means that the shadows are all in one direction; When lighting it near multiple objects, the shadows are at angles if the object isn’t directly in front of the light source.

Many Apollo 12 photos have clear evidence that the pictures were staged. In one shot, there are 3 camera lens flares. For this to happen, the sunlight has to be directly hitting the lens, but the sun is clearly to the top left of the camera.

In one picture, when you up the gamma/exposure/contrast you can clearly see light in the background where the sun is not. People claim that it is just a continuation of the light from the sun; if this were the case, there wouldn’t be a space of darkness in the middle of the light. In this case, light would have to be reflected off of something to show. If it were space, there would be nothing to reflect the light off of; a black backdrop would be the way to reflect light like this.

This effect is shown here, with the original photograph on the right compared to the brightened on the right.

The Unintentional “Confessions:”

Through words of interviewees that work at NASA, they practically admit that the moon landing would have been impossible. Many NASA employees claim that technology that allows humans to safely go into the mesosphere, and even lets us enter the thermosphere without dying, needs to be developed. Since the moon is past the thermosphere, how did the astronauts of 1969 make it to the moon if we still cannot do it safely with the technology we have developed today?

These unanswered questions leave conspiracy theorists, and average people, asking themselves “Did the moon landing really happen?” There isn’t enough evidence to prove that the moon landing of 1969 was indeed a hoax, but there is enough to develop a theory that it was. Many facts don’t add up, even if some do add up. Most conspiracy theories end up being proven or debunked, but this “case” has yet to be closed, and so, the question asking if the moon landing didn’t happen remains unanswered.