Maggie Rae

Did We Land on the Moon?

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Neil

Armstrong spoke these words on July 19, 1969, just seconds after taking his first steps

on the moon. As few as 5% believe the United States did not go to the moon (Villard

48). It is evident to me that NASA, and Apollo 11 landed on the moon, and that the

small majority of “hoax believers,” are terribly mistaken. It is hard for me to take the

hoaxers seriously because they lack so many qualifications even though they say their

credentials are high. Evidence such as moon rocks and repeated visits to the moon, are

confirmation that NASA went to the moon. There is no escape from controversy no

matter what kind of argument a person tries to make. A few “rebels” have tried to

prove the United States didn’t go to the moon because of pictures showing a waving

flag in space, and the fact that the LEM did not create a huge blast crater when it

descended onto the moon’s surface. However, each one of the points made by the non-

believers can easily be proven incorrect. There is no doubt in my mind that NASA and

the Apollo missions made the journey to the moon.

“Their assertions are so absurd, so easily discredited, so lacking in any kind of

scientific analysis and just plain common sense” (Bara). It is evident that the voice

behind the words is talking about the conspiracy theorists. While every theorist is

allowed to make a claim, each idea or proposal made by these men, can be proven

incorrect and not sufficient enough to prove the United States didn’t go to the moon.

One claim that David Percy makes is that there is no blast crater on the moon.

He believes that in order for the LEM to have landed on the actual moon, there needed

to be a very large blast crater underneath the LEM. He uses photographs to prove that

a crater is not evident, and therefore, the LEM never went to the moon. Sadly enough,

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Percy’s claim can be proven false. In the picture shown below, taken from the Apollo 12

mission, the LEM engine created a strikingly

clear, "discolored" ground track (Bara).

During the Apollo 11 mission, the same type of

crater is formed from dust. “The descent

propulsion system continued to fire a short time

after landing; thus, the area beneath the rocket

engine is darkened and has a strongly swept appearance. No detectable crater was

formed beneath the rocket engine, but a thin, coherent crust appears to have

developed” (Jones). The problem with the crater idea for Percy is that the crater isn’t

like one he could see on Earth. Since there is no atmosphere on the Moon, the amount

of time that dust particles remain in the air is short-lived. There are no molecules

holding the particles up, and the dust settles very quickly, close to its origin. The claim

that there is no blast crater from the LEM engine because NASA filmed it on Earth is not

substantial enough evidence, to prove there is a great Moon Hoax.

In another claim, Bill Kaysing, alleges that the

American flag is waving. He goes on to say that the waving

was caused by a sudden gust of wind on the "soundstage”

(Bara). Kaysing doesn’t mention that the flag is waving only

when the astronauts are touching it. In the picture on the

right, the flag is motionless in the air. It only looks like it is

still waving because the bar on top of the flag was not quite

the full width of the flag. NASA purposely designed the bar in

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such a way that the flag was curved to give a 'wave look' to it (Moon Hoax). Another

reason why the flag looks as if it’s waving is because of the astronauts grip on the

flagpole. Since the Moon’s surface was quite solid below the layer of dust, the

astronauts had a hard time pushing the pole into the surface and had to twist the pole

back and forth to force the pole into the ground. This relates to the “waving” flag

because if the astronaut were moving part of the flagpole, the flag attached to that pole

would move because a force is being put onto the object. At first glance, even to me

the flag seemed to be waving. It wasn’t until I properly researched the “waving flag,”

that I found out the flag doesn’t actually wave. Once again, it can be proven that with

the proper evidence any hoax about the moon landings can be proven wrong.

With the completion of the Apollo missions in 1972, Earth had gained 842

pounds (Hoversten). This access weight came from the moon rocks that the NASA

astronauts were able to bring back from their trips to the Moon. Moon rocks are some

of the best evidence to prove that we did go to the moon. Graham Ryder, a geologist,

was quoted when addressing the issue of Moon rocks, as saying, “The rocks contain no

molecules of water, they're not oxidized and they

contain no ferric iron. They're easy to distinguish

from rocks on Earth” (Hoversten). In contradiction

to the conspiracy theorists ideas, there is no

possible way that NASA could have used plain, old

Earth rocks as Moon rocks. If the rocks were phony

rocks, then why would NASA allow over 50 scientists around the world test our Moon

rocks? Another interesting fact is the Moon rocks collected during the Apollo missions

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show the evidence of billions of years of exposure to a vacuum, high energy cosmic

rays, tiny asteroids and virtually no water; all found only on the Moon’s surface (Moon

Hoax). It is clear that the rocks brought back during the Apollo missions were in fact,

Moon rocks.

The Cold War was all about putting the communist countries in their place. The

main driving force behind the Apollo missions, especially Apollo 11, was getting to the

moon before the communists (Moon Hoax). Some conspiracy theorists believe that

Many conspiracy theorists believe we never sent a man to the moon. Men like Kevin

Overstreet claim that the United States didn’t want to be defeated by Russia in the

space race, so they faked the moon landing to win the battle.

As with any conspiracy theory, there is substantial evidence as to why the claim

is completely false. One thing that the theorists

don’t talk about is the five different times NASA

astronauts went to the moon. As stated earlier,

the first mission was to beat the Russians; but

what about the other Apollo missions? With the

exception of Apollo 13, the United States

successfully traveled to the moon five more times.

Each time, scientists learned further thrilling

information about Earth’s great moon. Of course, sending men to the moon can really

start to empty some pockets. One reason the United States decided to stop sending

Americans to the moon was because the government finance started to diminish (Moon

Hoax). Also, scientists wanted to explore aspects of the Solar System other than the

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Moon (Bara). Americans played a part in the termination of the Apollo moon missions

because NASA saw a lack of interest with a lot of people in the United States. Since

Americans were proud of the moon landings, and remaining victorious over the

Russians, NASA felt that it was not worth the time, effort, and money to send another

mission to the Moon (Moon Hoax).

Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon in 1969. The significance

of the Apollo 11 moon landing produced a small population of people who thought the

whole event never happened. The idea that people believe NASA astronauts never

landed on the Moon blows me away. There is way too much evidence to support the

fact that NASA astronauts landed on the Moon. Many experts can argue why the

waving flag, and no blast crater are inadequate reasons as to why the United States

didn’t go to the Moon. Moon rocks and continued Moon missions confirm that the

United States did in fact, land on the Moon. For NASA and the Apollo missions, there

were never any problems with Houston, and the “Eagle” did land on the Moon in 1969.