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the Stooge |
The Apollo Moon Landing 'Hoax'
I'm no rocket scientist, but I know stupidity when I see It, and I saw a lot of it when I investigated evidence of the alleged hoaxing of the Apollo lunar landings that occurred between 1969 and 1972.
Special Note: NasaStooge has retired:
This site is no longer updated and will be left to gather dust for all eternity.
Recommended Hoax-busting Resources
Farewell one and all...
10th Sep 2002
Bart Sibrel floored as Buzz Aldrin strikes a blow for Apollo
 Don't mess with Buzz |
Download mpeg movie of the confrontation (MPEG, 761kb, original source unkown)
Further info:
For a good explanation of just how wrong Sibrel's theories are, see here.
Folks in the UK - Have you just seen the programme 'Conspiracy Theory' on Channel 5? Well I suggest you pay a visit to Bad Astronomy and see this pseudo-scientific twaddle debunked.
It never ceases to amaze me just how credulous some people can be. The whole Apollo Conspiracy theory has been around for years, and I hadn't given much thought to it, I'd heard some of the 'classic; arguments (e.g. no stars in photographs, flag waving in a windless environment) and not given them too much thought, the reasons for these 'anomalies' are quite straight forward, and could be answered by anyone with a basic secondary school education.
Or so I thought.
It hadn't occurred to me that people take this stuff seriously. My apathy began to diminish when I became aware of a number of rather cranky websites on the Internet purporting to have 'incontrovertible evidence' that Apollo was faked. These sites show no such thing, other than the lack of critical thinking skills there seem to be in the world.
I feel a mixture of amusement and dismay when I read some of these pages, and a fair bit of when people try to make a living out of conning people. For this is what I believe some Hoax Believers (HBs) are doing. Many people have comprehensively debunked the arguments these people are putting forward, and yet they still peddle their nonsense books and videos. I think this is dishonest, to put it mildly.
What is this all about then?
This is my contribution to common sense and critical thinking, for what its worth. I was originally going to make this page into a serious and comprehensive debunking of the hoax, but some quick research made it abundantly clear to me that this has already been done with greater articulacy and technical insight than I could ever manage. So I have opted, as we say in England, to take the piss. While I'm doing that however, I hope to provide you, good reader, with the information with which to help you decide if these people really do know what they are talking about, or if it's a load of bovine ejecta.
This page is still a work a progress, and will be updated regularly, or at least until I get bored....
HB Howlers
Here I present some of the more ludicrous claims of some hoax-believer sites. It is fair enough for the average person to wonder who could have been filming Armstrong as he came down the ladder to take his giant leap for mankind, or even fail to understand how the Lunar Rover could have fit inside the Lunar Module (it didn't), but I'm afraid one must be pretty dense to go to the effort of building a website to make such claims when a quick search on Google will put you straight.
Howler #1 - Stars in their eyes
David Wozney's hoax page draws our attention to a photo of Apollo 13's damaged service module, reminding us that stars are never visible (not strictly true) in Apollo photography, but for some reason they are abundant in this picture. Even the most unobservant viewer shouldn't take long to spot the error in this assumption. (Clue: look at the engine bell) picture source: http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/AS13/10075514.jpg
 NASA photo |
Howler #2 - Me and my shadow
This is one of my favourite examples of just how little research goes into most of the HB Websites.
This gem can be found on a few sites, It is taken from the Apollo 11
Lunar Module 'Eagle' during its descent to the lunar surface. The belief
here is that dark area E is the shadow of some object being cast onto
the moon's surface.
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To quote 'Moon Fakers': 'I have no idea what it is but obviously it's there'.
Quite.
The Moon Shots Were Faked proclaims that this 'abnormal shadow' should not be so clearly defined. Similar claims are made here and here.
Lets see if we can clear this little anomaly up shall we?. What can we find in The Apollo Archive ...
The photograph below was taken a little later out of the same window as above. Hopefully you can clearly see the weird shadow is in fact the silhouette of the Reaction Control System (RCS) quad, outside Neil Armstong's window. Well, that was easy.
 NASA Photo AS11-37-5439. |
 Lunar Module. Commander's window and RCS Quad indicated in red. |
Next!
Howler # 3 - Magic Bean
 Al Bean With one reflection too many. |
Maybe.
A quick visit to the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (ALSJ) (although it would be even quicker if these HB buggers bothered to give us the NASA photo IDs) comes up with the same photo, with only one astronaut reflected in the visor. Well, a perplexing mystery indeed. But wait, what is this I find in the section of the ALSJ called FUN IMAGES? Why, It's the mystery photo! Close inspection reveals that the superfluous reflection bears a striking resemblance to the one in this photograph.
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Image Cropped from NASA Photo AS12-46-6813, shown against a close-up of the visor 'anomaly' |
 NASA Photo: as12-49-7278 |
The original Photo, in all its single-astronaut-reflecting glory.
Come on guys, you're not even trying.
Howler # 4 - 'Seethruart' aka 'Piper'.....
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To most people this image looks like a picture of Buzz Aldrin's bootprint. But not to Seethruart/Piper. To him, this is long-range photo of an alien city.
You would be forgiven for thinking that perhaps this fellow is having a joke, I still can't quite decide myself. But he's been around for over a year, making wild claims wherever anyone will listen, and he gets very upset when people tell him he is wrong, or suggests he should seek the services of a good psychiatrist.
If you must, have a look and decide for yourself, but don't say I didn't warn you...
If you have been a victim of Seethruart's unique brand of hoaxology, the people at Piper Anonymous want to help.
Howler # 5- Live from the moon?
I don't think there is a conspiracy theory that 'Cosmic' Dave Cosnette doesn't subscribe too, but anyway, lets see what he has to say about Apollo. Aside from the usual rehashed arguments, non-sequiters and baseless conjecture, this nugget caught my eye:|
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This picture is a still taken from a movie shot during Apollo 15?, taken on the Lunar Rover while it is driving across the lunar surface.
Cosmic Dave is perplexed. Cosmic Dave knows that in order for live TV pictures to be beamed back to Earth, the rover must be stationary, otherwise the rover's antenna cannot be be precisely aligned with Earth. This much is true.
One thing Cosmic Dave does not know, however, is what the Lunar Surface TV camera looks like. I do (See Fig 1 below):
 Fig 2. Relative positions of 70mm Hasselblad (A), 16mm camera (B) and TV camera (C) (NASA Photo: AS15-) Annotations by Henning Conrad |
Yes, my observant friends, the camera that Cosmic Dave believes made the film in question is actually in the film itself!. The footage was shot using the 16mm movie camera that was also taken to the moon. An example of the relative comera positions is shown in Fig 2.
Stooge is not impressed.
More silliness exposed soon...
HB Checklist
Next time you visit a Hoax-believer's site, why not amuse yourself by calculating it's level of silliness using the simple checklist below.
Start with a score of zero and add the appropriate amount for each item on the checklist that you find:-
+1 for each use of the term 'Astro-not'
- +1 for each unreferenced photograph.
- +2 for each HB Howler used.
- +2 for excessive use of UPPERCASE text to emphasize points.
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Website has links to sites concerned with:
- Chemtrails (+1)
- JFK (+1)
- Area 51 (+1)
- Freemasonry (+1)
- Illuminati (+5)
- David Icke (+5)
- additional +10 if four or more all of the above.
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Website contains articles concerned with:
- Chemtrails (+5)
- JFK (+5)
- Area 51 (+5)
- Freemasonry (+10)
- The Illuminati (+10)
- David Icke (+15)
- additional +20 if four or more the above.
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Claims that they have been threatened by government agents. (+5)
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Compares artist's impressions to reality. (+10)
- Claims that the laws
of physics prohibit space travel. (+15)
- Concludes that man has been to the moon but is hiding the fact that
aliens got there first. (+20)
- Promises to provide startling new evidence. For a price. (+50)
- Gives no links to hoax-debunking sites (+100) (Suggested by Henning Conrad)
On the off-chance that anyone actually does this, please email us with the site URL, the score you calculated, and I'll post the results.
Links
The Good Guys - follow these links and you'll learn something.
- Clavius.org
- Pretty much destroys every conspiracy theory there is.
Bad Astronomy- The Bad Astronomer deals specifically with the TV program shown on FOX TV Network in the US, and in the UK on 'Bravo', and recently on Channel 5. There is also a discussion forum there, where like-minded warriors for truth do battle against the dark forces of Apollo tomfoolery.
Debunking the moonmovie- Debunks Bart Sibrel's silliness.
A Critique of "Was It Only A Paper Moon?"- Larry Jacks magnificiently debunks James Collier's travesty of the truth.
Did We Land On The Moon ?- Bob Braeunig knows the answer. This page is part of a larger
site containing lots of interesting info for all space and rocket
nuts.
Piper Anonymous- For victims of Seethruart/Piper deranged rantings.
Rogues Corner
Promoters of the Apollo hoax:- www.aulis.com
- Flash but fatally flawed.
www.moonmovie.com- A waste of good video tape.
Jim Collier's "Was it Only a Paper Moon?"- You'll laugh & you'll cry. Heroically bad. If you must, you can watch it for free with a RealVideo player.
Seethruart aka Piper- The loons loon.
Moon Landing is a Fake- Huh?.
David Wozney
Moon Fakers
The Moon Shots Were Faked
Yet another
And yet another
Yawn...
References
If you fancy doing a spot of do-it-yourself debunking, the links below will help:- Apollo Lunar
Surface Journal
- The first stop for any self-respecting Apollo geek. Providing full transcripts, photgraphs, and loads of other stuff relating to Apollo lunar activity. Splendid.
The Apollo Archive
- "... an online reference source and repository of digital images pertaining to the historic manned lunar landing program." - Marvellous
The Apollo Saturn Reference Page- "... to provide photo-reference and technical information on the Saturn V, Saturn Ib, Apollo Spacecraft and Launch Complex 39." - Super.
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Encyclopedia Astronautica
- An invaluable reference for all things astronautical.
Lunar Module Space Craft Assembly and Test- Interesting site by a former engineer at Grumman - manufacturer of the LM.
NASA Histories Online- Has a number of useful documents including:
- Chariots
for Apollo:A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft
- ~
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Apollo By The Numbers: A Statistical Reference
- A wealth of facts and figures about many aspects of Apollo
- The
Apollo Spacecraft Chronology, Vol. I - IV
- ~
- Stages
to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicle
- ~
- Chariots
for Apollo:A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft