40 years ago today, the lunar module Eagle separated from the command module Columbia to make history. Unfortunately, despite the wealth of archival footage, photos, mission artifacts, and eyewitness accounts available to the public and recently declassified, skepticism still persists in a community of hoax believers—people who contend that the moon landing was an elaborate fake. In honor of what was achieved through the efforts of so many on that fateful 20th day of July, 1969 I think it’s fitting that I help arm people with the knowledge to refute hoax believers’ faulty assumptions and prove for themselves the truth of the moon landing.
In 2001 Phil Plait, the creator of the site Bad Astronomy, wrote “Fox TV and the Apollo Moon Hoax” as a response to the Apollo denier program “Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?” In it he picks apart the evidence the show asserts supports its allegations of fakery as perpetrated by NASA, and explains away what perceived ammunition the hoax believers had.
Also helping dispel the myths revolving the Moon landing is the Discovery Channel program MythBusters. A show created to explore the facts behind popular (or perhaps persistent) urban myths, the program dedicated an entire episode, “NASA Moon Landing,” to proving the conspiracy theorist’s suppositions right or wrong. But instead of armchair rebuttals the MythBusters team and hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman design and conduct their own demonstrations to get to the truth.
We could also go beyond the media and straight to the source—NASA. In the years since the Moon landing, space exploration hasn’t exactly been at a standstill, and neither has our fascination with our closest neighbor. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the best images yet of the Apollo landing sites since the astronauts walked on the surface and NASA has made those available for public scrutiny.
McLaughlin, Brian. “The Moon Landings: Fact, Not Fiction.” Wired July 20 2009 <http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/07/the-moon-landings-fact-not-fiction>
“NASA Moon Landing.” MythBusters. Discovery Channel, Silver Spring. Aug 27, 2008.
Plait, Phil. “Fox TV and the Apollo Moon Hoax.” Bad Astronomy Feb 13, 2001 July 14, 2009 <http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html>
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