Moon Landing Conspiracy Theory

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

These are famous words that we grow up learning about and hearing, even if we weren’t old enough to witness the moon landing itself. The moon landing was not only a big step for mankind, but for history too. To travel into space is to prove that we small human beings are, in fact, worthy and capable of doing something remarkable; that we can take control of our fate and our lives on this small planet.
We are so-called Masters of the Universe. But there are some people who think they can call NASA out on a bluff with the whole thing.
20% of the American population believes that the moon landing, the entire thing, was a hoax. That’s right, a hoax. Their belief is that the entire footage of the moon landing was shot on a soundstage. And to be honest, they have some compelling arguments for the theory.
One of the most well-known bits of “evidence” seemingly supporting the moon landing conspiracy theory hoax is the supposedly waving flag they plant on the surface of the moon—there’s no wind in a vacuum, which is supposedly what space is. NASA says the flag moved because the astronauts were touching the pole to dig it into the moon surface, or because it had been in a tube and, when unfurled, it got wrinkled. Conspiracy theorists also claim that if the lunar module actually landed on the moon, then there would have been a blast crater under it, or at least some sort of indication that it hit the ground, rather than just being placed there. There is no obvious indentation or misplacement of soil in the still pictures of the landing.
Conspiracy theorists also point out that there seem to be multiple light sources in the moon landing footage, as shadows do not run parallel with each other. NASA has said that the bumps and hills on the moon’s surface interfered with the Sun’s light and created the uneven shadows.
The creepiest, to me, “evidence” that the moon landing was a hoax is the “unexplained object”. That is the name for the weird floating thing that is reflected in an astronaut’s helmet from the Apollo 12 mission. Theorists believe it looks like a theatre spotlight hanging from the ceiling—but, take it from an actor, that doesn’t look like any theatre light I’ve ever seen. So, what can it be? Alien or man-made? It remains a mystery to this day, and still creepy.

The last argument against the moon landing that I’ll cover today is the argument being made about the lack of stars in the video and photographic footage. It’s funny, because I didn’t even notice that until I read about it while researching this. But it’s true; the background is just plain black in all of the footage from the moon landing. Seeing as the moon has no clouds or pollution to block them, stars should be pretty visible, and also brighter than what we see through our Earth’s atmosphere. NASA released a statement about the lack of stars, which blamed the quality of the photographs. They said the quality washed out the stars. But the argument for theorists is that NASA would have found it impossible to map out the exact locations of all stars for the hoax without being found out, and therefore left them out. You can take pretty low quality pictures on Earth, with all of its pollution and clouds and atmosphere blocking the stars and still have the stars in the picture, so really if you think about it, why couldn’t you on the moon when you have a high-quality camera and when there’s nothing at all blocking them?

There are a lot of reasons conspiracy theorists believe the moon landing was a hoax—and while some are clearly scrambling for proof, some others are pretty convincing. I’m not sure what to think, but it is certainly interesting to hear what they have to say about the matter. It’s funny, really, because if you think about it: with half of the population believing the government is hiding aliens from us, and now with half of the population believing we can’t even travel into space—well, you just can’t win.
If you want to read more about why conspiracy theorists believe the moon landing was a hoax, there’s an article here that lists 10 reasons why conspiracy theorists believe what they believe.