The Apollo Moon Hoax Timothy Monk Stuart Robbins Planetary Seminar December 2006 1 This presentation has been rated R for language and content Content may offend your sense of sanity 2 http www amazon com 3 Outline Main Claims Photography Environment Technology What a Moon Landing Hoax Must Claim to be Valid Hoax Psychology 4 Photography 5 Claim Photographs are too good and must have been professionally done Not true There s something called Public Relations Photos were expensive to duplicate and bad photos were simply not released until now http www clavius org 6 Claim The film would have melted or been exposed from the low Earth radiation Surface temperature is very different from an airless temperature Cameras were covered with reflective metal Film had extra protection The study quoted for this is full of holes Did not use same film same shielding or even same brand of camera Exposed film to 8 MeV x rays vs 5 keV average from celestial sources Exposed film to 25 100 rads 6 years worth in cislunar orbit 7 Claim Astronauts couldn t ve operated cameras with gloves on no viewfinders nor auto focus exp The cameras were designed with extra large buttons and adjustment mechanisms so it s like saying they couldn t operate a shovel The cameras were mounted on their chests Cameras had wide angle lenses and sighting rings for the 500 mm lens on later missions People could photograph before computers Exposures were figured out experimentally before hand so the astronauts knew what to shoot for pun intended and refined over the course of the mission Focus rings mark where the lens should be focused based upon how far away you think you are from the object and high f stops can be used 8 Claim Astronauts couldn t ve operated cameras with gloves on no viewfinders nor auto focus exp f 4 5 f 32 Stuart Robbins 9 Claim Crosshairs appear behind objects sometimes Cameras had a glass plate with crosshairs fiducials etched in with a width of 0 1 mm Used to determine distance with stereo pairs If you were making a hoax for 5 of your national budget why would you mess up something like this It s much easier to fake it the way NASA says they did it than to put them in later In all cases crosshairs disappear behind a very bright object Saturation bleeding and low quality reproductions 10 Claim Crosshairs appear behind objects sometimes They Show You http www clavius org 11 Claim Crosshairs appear behind objects sometimes They Don t Show You http www clavius org 12 Claim Crosshairs large isn t centered all are tilted The fiducials were etched in of uniform size except for the center which was larger in extent The film used was square all examples of this are rectangular images It s called Crop Rotate remember this was a public relations campaign 13 Claim Crosshairs large isn t centered all are tilted They Show You 501x400 px http space ight1 nasa gov gallery images apollo 14 Claim Crosshairs large isn t centered all are tilted They Don t Show You 400x400 px http space ight1 nasa gov gallery images apollo 15 Claim Objects are in shadow but they re lit proving there was other light 16 Claim Objects are in shadow but they re lit proving there was other light FOX s Conspiracy Theory Did We Land on the Moon 17 Claim Objects are in shadow but they re lit proving there was other light There was one light source the Sun But light has a tricky property It bounces off stuff Look at the lunar regolith do you see it Other reflections http space ight1 nasa gov gallery images apollo 18 Claim Shadows are not parallel as they must be if there s only one light source Two main effects Varied slant angle of topography Perspective 19 Claim Shadows are not parallel as they must be if there s only one light source They Show You FOX s Conspiracy Theory Did We Land on the Moon 20 Claim Shadows are not parallel as they must be if there s only one light source They Don t Show You http www clavius org edited by presenters 21 Claim Shadows are not parallel as they must be if there s only one light source They Don t Show You http www clavius org edited by presenters 22 Claim Where are the stars Misconception The sky is black so it must be night so there must be stars Camera was set to expose for day for the surface Dynamic range not enough 23 Claim Where are the stars http cosmos colorado edu sbo public lunar eclipse 2004 lunar eclipse 2004 html 24 Claim Where are the stars Episode 03 03 of Penn Teller s Bullshit 25 Environment 26 Claim LM rocket engine firing should have left a large blast crater in the soft lunar surface No blast crater 27 Claim LM rocket engine firing should have left a large blast crater in the soft lunar surface Descent stage engine UDMH N2H4 fuel N2O4 oxidizer Max thrust 9 870 lbf Throttleable minimum thrust 1 050 lbf Nozzle characteristics 28 Claim LM rocket engine firing should have left a large blast crater in the soft lunar surface Nozzle exit diameter 63 in Total exit area 3117 25 in2 Max thrust area 3 17 lbf in2 Pressure range 0 34 3 17 lbf in2 Considering under expansion of nozzle extension 29 Claim Temperature would have been too much for the astronauts 280 F SURFACE TEMP 280 F Objects more reflective will not reach temperatures as high due to lower absorption Spacesuits were designed for minimum absorption white outer cover EVA profile considerations 30 Claim The astronauts would not have survived the passage through the Van Allen Radiation Belts Mission profile passed through a thin region of the Van Allen Belts TLI accelerated the spacecraft to 11 2 km s Velocity at the far edge of the outer Van Allen belt 4 6 km s Resulting exposure time 1 5 hrs 3 hr total exposure Dosimeters worn by the astronauts reveal an average dosage of 1 6 rem comparable to 0 360 rem for the average American Max dosage was 2 85 rem on Apollo 14 1 140 lethal dosage 31 Claim The American flag waves This proves that there was air present 32 Claim The American flag waves This proves that there was air present FOX s Conspiracy Theory Did We Land on the Moon 33 Claim The American flag waves This proves that there was air present Problems connecting rods forced a rotational motion Motion was only dissipated by inertia of cloth itself because no air was present Telescoping rod on top didn t extend fully on Apollo 11 causing a ripple effect Subsequent missions did this on purpose because the astronauts preferred the look 34 Claim C ROCK 35 Claim C ROCK Episode 03 03 of Penn Teller s Bullshit 36 Claim C ROCK 37 Claim The footprints