Moon landing conspiracy theories

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According to the conspiracy theories about the moon landing, this rocket launch of the Apollo 11 mission is regarded as a means of misleading the world's population.

The conspiracy theories on moon landings assume that the moon landings did not take place in the years 1969 to 1972 (often it is only about the first manned moon landing ), but were faked by NASA and the US government . The conspiracy theories have been spreading since the 1970s by the author Bill Kaysing - and increasingly again since 2001.

History and background

Much investment has been made in space travel in both the Soviet Union and the United States . The public could only follow the race between the two competing space nations on the basis of presentable facts, such as completed rockets and satellites . The sheer volume of unmanageable events led suspicious citizens to suspect that the entire program was just pure propaganda . This suspicion was reinforced by the fact that only a few publications were available to inform the general public.

Authors such as the American Bill Kaysing extracted previously little-known information, some of which was only understandable to experts - enriched with unanswered questions and mere assumptions. In 1976 Bill Kaysing published his book We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle . He looked for contradictions, but often presented them as facts and the moon landing as a forgery without counter-research or verifiable sources. This was the first time he founded a complex conspiracy theory on the moon landing that went beyond previous mere expressions of opinion or simple arguments.

In 2001, the US TV station Fox broadcast the hour-long television report Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? out. In Germany, this report was broadcast in a synchronized and uncommented version by Spiegel TV . This documentary represents the point of view of Kaysing and other conspiracy theorists whose core thesis is that the technology of the 1960s never made an actual moon landing possible. Rather, a film studio is said to have been set up in the secret military base Area 51 in order to produce the moon scenes there. Numerous arguments of Kaysing are listed (shadows, hidden crosshairs on pictures, the flag, evidence for mounted pictures). It is said that the Saturn rockets were always launched unmanned. The three astronauts Chaffee , White and Grissom , who tragically burned in the Apollo 1 command module , were killed to cover up the matter. NASA employees have been sworn to silence, and seven other astronauts and pilots are said to have been murdered to prevent them from betraying.

NASA ignored the allegations. She pointed out that the burden of proof ( onus probandi ) for the impossibility of landing lies on the side of the conspiracy theorists. The only official reaction was to fund a book that space expert and journalist James Oberg wanted to write. When this was publicly criticized as a waste of taxpayers' money, NASA stopped funding.

Motivation and dissemination

United States motifs

The following motives are believed to be important motives of the United States by conspiracy theories:

Motif 1
For the Americans, a technological victory was seen as an important demonstration of power against the Soviet Union.

However, the political opponents of the United States did not make political use of the counterfeiting of the moon landing, which was accused from 1976 onwards. The Soviet Union had suitable means (including radar , radio relay , satellites ) to uncover a faked moon landing by the United States. For example, she could hear and locate the radio traffic of the American astronauts. In the race into space, she would not have had to put up with the shame of not being the first to land on the moon, if the moon landing had actually been faked. It is considered unlikely that the Soviet Union would not immediately have politically used evidence of a fake moon landings during the Cold War . The Soviet Union never brought people to the moon, but it did bring many unmanned probes. Three of these probes brought rock samples from the moon back to earth. These samples were also compared to the Apollo samples and do not give any evidence of falsification.

Motif 2
The successful moon landing (after just circumnavigating the moon by Apollo 8 ) would have had problems in Vietnam at the time, the race riots in the USA ( 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King ) and anti-Vietnam riots ( 1967 demonstration with 400,000 people in Washington, DC ) distracted, which actually happened.

The starting shot for the lunar missions ( Apollo program ) was fired long before the Vietnam intervention ( Tonkin incident ) decided on August 7, 1964 , namely with John F. Kennedy's speech on May 25, 1961 ( listening ? / I , text ) . The trigger for the moon program is due to the historical circumstances to be ascribed to the great advances in manned Soviet space travel by Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961, whose technological lead in rocket technology shocked the American population again after the Sputnik shock in 1957. The US problems only became noticeable in the course of the war, many years after the lunar program came into effect. Audio file / audio sample

Motif 3
NASA would have lost parts of its space budget of $ 30 billion if it hadn't had some success .

After that, the American government would not have deceived the world, but would have been deceived by NASA itself. This argument does not take into account the real allocation of funds. NASA would not have benefited financially from a lie: it does not build spaceships itself, but hires subcontractors to do it for them. The money flowed primarily into engineering work (salaries), equipment (some Saturn V rockets were even left over) and into previous programs such as Mercury and Gemini . The pure material value of the used launch vehicles and lunar landing vehicles is minimal compared to the total budget, and not carrying out the moon landing would only have saved astronauts' salaries and their space food, for example. The money saved would have been in no relation to the effort that would have had to be put into the work of the conspiracy and its cover-up.

Motives of the conspiracy theorists

This section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
The section only gives the opinion of a physicist and an actor. There is no evidence that the above-mentioned motives are actually the motives of the conspiracy theorists.

Ernst Stuhlinger , friend and colleague of Wernher von Braun , points out the lack of scientific education as a possible social motive with regard to disseminators and supporters of the conspiracy theory:

"The way to belief is short and easy, the way to knowledge is long and hard."

"The way to believe is short and easy, the way to knowledge is long and stony."

The sheer number of allegations can suggest a high level of evidential value. A careful analysis, weighing and weighting of the arguments put forward in many of these claims - which often seem plausible at first glance - requires a great deal of detailed knowledge of technical and physical relationships. This demanding knowledge of the special conditions in space and space travel exceeds the level of an average school education, as it forms the basis of the assessment for most lay people.

Actor Tom Hanks , leading actor in Apollo 13 and producer of the documentary From the Earth to the Moon , was asked in an interview what he thought of the moon landing conspiracy theories. His answer was:

"We live in a society where there is no law in making money in the promulgation of ignorance or, in some cases, stupidity ..."

"We live in a society in which no law forbids making money by spreading ignorance or in some cases stupidity ..."

- Tom Hanks

Hanks takes the position that authors of the conspiracy theory act out of commercial self-interest and consciously accept half-education in their adherents .

Arguments and counter arguments

All conspiracy theories assume as a premise that NASA was able to deceive almost all persons involved in the Apollo program (estimates amount to 400,000 at times) as well as contemporary witnesses worldwide with the possibility of verification or to oblige them to remain silent. Since this would have required, among other things, an intelligence operation directed against the own population of a completely unrealistic scale and the logistical and technical effort required for this would have been much higher than for a real moon landing, the conspiracy theories are not taken seriously by the general public and are officially recognized usually not commented on. Nevertheless, the individual arguments of the conspiracy theories have been examined and refuted by various places. The most important ones are named below.

Photographic and film-technical aspects

Same recording at different times

In 2000, among others, NASA employee Ken Glover created hundreds of copies of the video recordings of the Apollo moon landings that were suitable for modem users. They were used for the NASA archives website to provide Internet users with documented extracts of the moon landings. After the videos were discontinued by the person responsible for this section of the NASA website, Joseph O'Dea, there were two apparently consecutive video excerpts for a short time on the Apollo 16 subpage, which were assigned incomprehensibly far apart mission times . The first almost three-minute video clip was assigned to the mission time 144: 46: 38. The second excerpt was initially recorded as “ Nothing so hidden ” with a time difference of around one day from the first recording . This takes the report Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? the occasion to present the entire moon landing as a collection of film scenes shot on earth. In fact, the second film excerpt was simply incorrectly timed on the website. The second video was linked correctly after the incorrect classification became known . The gap between these sections has been filled with a new video clip. This new video and the minutes of the conversation make it clear that the scenes were filmed in quick succession instead of on different days as assumed. Already in the live broadcast and on the published video tapes, all the scenes mentioned followed one another in chronological order.

Authenticity of the lunar surface

Many of the photos show the same landscapes and ridges in the background. Conspiracy theorists interpret these backgrounds as repetitive backdrops. However, this is an effect of spatial perception. Due to their perception apparatus, people can succumb to a misinterpretation of the spatial depth without a precise analysis of the two-dimensional photos (including knowledge of the surface of the moon and the objects it contains). This effect is also called concealment or backdrop effect. However, more detailed analyzes of the photos confirm the correct perspectives , depth of field and other facts that cannot be determined with theater or film sets.

The following two images with a view of the Hadley Apennines during EVA3 ( Extra-vehicular Activity ) of the Apollo 15 mission are the most frequently cited photographs for this problem. The first image, which was taken at mission time 164: 26: 56 (at the beginning of EVA), shows the Hadley Apennines in the background, which is often referred to here as a backdrop. The second photo, taken about 1.5 hours later (1.7 kilometers from the first subject) shows a crater filled with many stones with the same range of hills in the background. A detailed analysis shows that the parallax shift contradicts the assumption of a backdrop. The hills move from photo to photo (especially the right hill, which is moved upwards in the second photo, makes this clear), which would not be possible with a backdrop.

  • The Hadley Apennines for the Apollo 15 mission

  • The same motif about 90 minutes later

  • Anaglyph of both images

Starless images

No stars can be seen in the moon sky in the photos taken on the moon . This was interpreted as evidence that the recordings were shot in a darkened hall. In fact, the reason is that photographic films only have a contrast range of nine to eleven f-stops . As a result, it is only possible to take pictures of objects in the same image whose luminosity is not too different. Recordings in which both very bright and very weakly luminous objects can be seen at the same time cannot be realized. Very long exposure times would have been necessary to be able to capture the stars in the moon sky on film. Since the lunar expeditions took place during the lunar "day", these long exposure times would have meant that the astronauts and the lunar landscape would have been completely overexposed. The deep black moon sky due to the lack of atmosphere must not lead to the false assumption that it was night and the stars should have been visible. In addition, blurring would have been inevitable with such long exposure times.

Often no stars can be seen on later space images either, for example the two photos of the former Mir space station and the astronaut Bruce McCandless do not show any stars due to the exposure problems. With a high exposure index of ISO 6400 and an exposure time of three seconds, however, stars become visible, as the picture on the far right of the International Space Station from 2011 shows.

In addition, the Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins made it clear at the official NASA press conference on the moon landing on August 12, 1969 at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston that they could not see any stars from the moon anyway, and thus they could not see them either could not take pictures. Neil Armstrong: “We were never able to see stars from the lunar surface or on the daylight side of the Moon by eye without looking through the optics.” (Translation: “From the lunar surface or from the daylight side of the moon we could never see stars without looking through the optics. ") Michael Collins added Armstrong's statement:" I can't remember seeing any (stars). "In German:" I can't remember seeing any (stars) to have."

Shadows

Many of the photos that were taken on the moon show shadows cast by various objects that are not parallel to one another. The length of the shadows cast is also inconsistent. Conspiracy theorists interpret this as contradicting the fact that the sun is the only source of light on the moon. One explanation is that the moon does not have a flat surface . Individual shadows fall on uneven surfaces and therefore appear partly shortened (when the floor is raised) and partly elongated (when the floor is deepened). Depending on the position of the depression or elevation, it also changes the direction of the shadow. In addition, the close-up perspective of the photography distorts the image of the shadows so that they no longer appear parallel. If several light sources - that is, studio spotlights - were actually used, several shadows of the same object would also have to be visible, running in different directions. The following photos show that normal sunlight, without the aid of spotlights, causes non-parallel shadows to appear in photos.

  • Two snow-covered apple trees in winter

  • Shadow play on a dirt road

Authenticity of the pictures

Crosshairs of the cameras are shown on many NASA images. The crosses are intended for surveying techniques and were specially integrated into the camera for the Apollo missions with the so-called Réseau glass plate . Such crosses are apparently sometimes obscured by objects on the moon. This was interpreted as evidence for photomontages . One explanation for this masking lies in the photographic effect of bleeding . If you take a closer look at the original images, the effect is often easy to see, as the crosses are often only partially covered. For example, in photos of the US flag, the crosses are often only covered in the white stripes and appear in front of the darker red ones. The following two photos from Apollo missions 12 and 17 show clear transitions, especially on the flagpole.

  • Charles Conrad Jr.'s arm and flagpole contain fades (Apollo 12).

  • The flagpole contains four cross-fades of the crosses (Apollo 17).

Quality of the photographs

Modified Hasselblad cameras were used during the moon walks . These were used for blind photography. This means that the astronauts did not use a viewfinder that is common to normal cameras . Conspiracy theorists see this as an insoluble paradox, since sharp photographs were nevertheless taken. Since the cameras were attached to the overalls at chest height for practical reasons, the originality of the photos continues to be questioned, as the published photos, for example, did not have heads cut off and the motifs depicted on them were otherwise well done. It must be noted, however, that the astronauts had learned over six months in training with a professional photographer to take good photographs with these cameras. For difficult photos, these cameras could be held like a gun in order to be able to aim more precisely at the subject. The sharpness of the images is explained by a special device on the cameras, through which the mechanism engages with four different sharpnesses - near, far, far and infinite. In order to be able to take the pictures at all, the release button for the cameras used on the moon was enlarged. In addition, the standard lens used was a lightweight wide-angle lens, which made focusing and composition easier.

The photos known through the media are also selected according to aesthetic criteria, subsequently trimmed or post-processed to adjust the contrast. There are also enough examples of few or unsuccessful photos that were not explicitly presented to the press and the public due to the lack of aesthetics.

Specification for photographs

The lunar surface has a temperature of -160 ° C to + 130  ° C on. Conspiracy theorists used these values ​​as a basis to prove that the specifications of the photography technology of the time were exceeded. The uncooled films consisted of a carrier material coated with the photosensitive photo emulsion based on gelatin . The films would have had to either melt or become brittle at these extreme temperatures, and the batteries would no longer have been usable at minus 40 ° C. However, the ambient temperatures found during the moon landings did not actually exceed the specifications of the photographic technology. The temperatures mentioned are only surface temperatures. Due to the lack of an atmosphere, there is no air temperature on the moon that directly affects the materials of the cameras. In addition, none of the landings took place on a lunar night or on a lunar noon - that is, under the specified extreme conditions. Even the longest stay on the moon of almost 75 hours on the last mission ( Apollo 17 ) is put into perspective compared to a lunar day length of around 27.3 earth days. Converted to the 24-hour earth day length, this would only correspond to a shift in the position of the sun by less than three hours. The lunar surface in the landing areas averaged around 20 to 25 degrees Celsius, taking into account the radiation energy and the angle of the sun.

The cameras were Hasselblad 500EL models ( Hasselblad 500 EL / 70 ) specially adapted for the moon landing ; like the removable film boxes , they had a silver coating to be less sensitive to thermal radiation, and the switches of the camera system were hermetically sealed for greater thermal insensitivity . Both the camera and the film boxes were also secured against the electrostatic charge generated during the winding process. Films based on commercially available products were used, the color slide films Kodak Ektachrome MS and EF with 64 and 160 ASA sensitivity respectively, as well as high-resolution black and white Panatomic-X films with 80 ASA for images of the terrain. In contrast to normal 60 mm films, these were made up of 70 mm and perforated on both sides.

The United States and the Soviet Union were able to show successful film recordings - without temperature problems - with the use of spy satellites as early as 1960 . In addition, a previous model of the Hasselblad 500EL camera, which was exposed to higher temperature differences (than on the moon) of +120 ° C in the sun and -65 ° C in the shade, was successfully used in the first American space exit ( Gemini 4 ) as early as 1965 . If there were the restrictions mentioned, there should be no analog photos from space at all.

Other inconsistencies

Inconsistencies in images of the moon circulating on the Internet have often caused confusion. For example, there is an image in circulation in which two others appear in the sight of an astronaut , although never more than two astronauts were on the moon at the same time. According to space historian David Harland, this photograph of the third astronaut is a joking photo manipulation he himself made for the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal .

Some of these photos even show letters on stones or the floor, for example two Cs interpreted as prop letters from a stone. The letters mentioned here are due to lint on a copy of the picture (a comparison on apolloprojekt.de illustrates this). Many other deceptions can be traced back to very small images in lossy formats that are distributed on the Internet, which contain so-called compression artifacts and cause loss of detail (for example in JPEG ). All originals are kept in the official NASA archive. In contrast to the copies that are often found on the Internet, these are characterized by a high level of detail due to high resolutions and only a low level of compression. The following recordings are high-resolution copies of the Internet NASA archive and accordingly do not contain any of the inconsistencies mentioned.

  • Original recording by Buzz Aldrin, without mirroring a third party

  • Original Apollo 16 image without fluff or letters

Technical and physical matters

The waving flag

Film footage of the setting up of the US flag shows that the flag initially moved. Since the moon has no atmosphere, conspiracy theorists conclude that this was not possible on the moon. The movement of the flag was not caused by wind, but by sustained oscillations in the vacuum after contact with the flagpole (comparable to the oscillation of a pendulum ). Since there is no friction between the flag and the air, the oscillations and vibrations of a flag on the moon - caused by smashing the mast or straightening the flag - are only dampened by the stiffness of the fabric.

In addition, the space journalist Werner Büdeler points out that the flag was hanging on a hinged cross brace and was prepared in such a way that it appeared to flutter in the wind. In studio recordings, the use of a fan or natural wind would stir up dust and create a cloudy view.

A comparison of two situations photographed at the same place makes it clear that the flag rests completely still after the abovementioned oscillations / vibrations have subsided and is obviously not exposed to any influences such as those found in the earth's atmosphere.

  • Buzz Aldrin saluting (recognizable by the right hand behind the helmet)

  • Aldrin a short time later with drooping arms; the flag still has the same characteristics

  • Animated sequence of images: the flag is not flying.

Video recordings during the Apollo 11 missions provide further information about this fallacy. So worked Armstrong and Aldrin from 28:33 to 35:19 of the first video section on setting up the flag. After Armstrong touched the flag for the last time around 33:30, it swung for half a minute. This very situation is often misunderstood as blowing in the wind. Immediately after swinging down, the flag remained there until the end of the 70-minute video excerpt without any movement, for example in the photos listed above, which were taken later and with a time delay after the video excerpt, no movement of the flag can be seen. In contrast to the lunar module recording, the second black and white video excerpt was filmed from a small tripod on the surface of the moon and shows the relevant scene from a wider perspective.

Gravity and the astronauts

During the lunar walks, the astronauts only made low jumps, which with the documented 60 centimeters are no higher than the average jumps and hops on earth. Conspiracy theorists assume that much higher jumps should have been made on the moon. The astronauts up to Apollo 14 wore a spacesuit with a total mass of 83 kg with the model A7L , from Apollo 15 it was even 90.7 kg with the model A7LB. With such spacesuits, no jumps at all are possible on earth. Higher jumps were also hampered by the restricted mobility in the spacesuit and the unfavorably high center of gravity of the life support system's knapsack.

Radiation exposure

On the flight of the astronauts to the moon, the Van Allen Belt between the earth and the moon inevitably had to be crossed. In this radiation belt there is a dose rate (radiation output) of around 1  Sv / h which is quite high for earthly conditions . Conspiracy theorists believed that this should inevitably have led to death. This dose rate is fatal in the long run, but on the one hand the astronauts were protected in the Apollo command capsule and on the other hand only needed about 90 minutes to cross the radiation belt. This meant an absorbed radiation dose of about 4.3  millisieverts for the entire crossing and corresponds to about twice the annual absorbed natural radiation dose of a citizen in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. The first detectable damage only occurs from an incorporated dose of more than 300 mSv (from 500 mSv there is reversible bone marrow depression ); at a dose below 10 mSv, a maximum of one additional cancer case per 10,000 people is to be expected. Less than 25 people were involved in the moon landings, so the increased risk of cancer of the participants due to the moon flight cannot be statistically proven. During the Apollo 16 mission , violent magnetic solar storms briefly resulted in a dose rate of up to 10 Sv / eruption. However, since the astronauts were only exposed to this for a short time and also enjoyed a certain protection in the spaceship, the total incorporated dose as well as the immediate dose remained far below the lethal level. They returned to Earth with no demonstrable injury. Unprotected, an immediate dose of ≈10 Sv would inevitably have reached the lethal dose , which would have meant the certain death of the astronauts.

Noise in the lunar module

Neil A. Armstrong with microphone in the landed Eagle lunar module

The detonation of the lunar module's brake rockets during landing on the moon made noise. Although the sound cannot propagate on the moon due to the lack of an atmosphere, it can in the spaceship. According to the assumptions of conspiracy theorists, the noise level is 140  dB , which would have made it impossible for the staff at the ground station to follow the astronauts' conversations. The noise of rocket engines is caused by the impact of the supersonic exhaust gases on ambient air, which means that in a vacuum , contrary to the assumption of the conspiracy theorists, the engines run quietly. Inside the spaceship, only vibrations are audible that are passed on to the interior atmosphere of the cabin through direct contact with the structural elements, i.e. essentially the flow noises of the flowing fuel components, the running pumps, etc. That means, at most, there is a soft hissing of the gases flowing out , similar to the sound of liquids flowing in water pipes or heating systems. The astronauts wore their helmets during the landing and takeoff. The sound recordings come from microphones that were placed near the head. These microphones were designed in such a way that they suppressed background noise ( anti- noise , English noise-canceling ), just like those used in aircraft (in which there is a high noise level). The hissing engine noise is largely kept away from the sound transmission ( Listen to the Apollo 11 moon landing ? / I ). Audio file / audio sample

Landing crater

The photos (see first picture) show that the lander's engine did not cause a crater in the ground . However, conspiracy theorists expect a clearly recognizable crater because of the dusty surface. However, this was not possible due to the circumstances at the time. The gas stream expanded very strongly due to the prevailing vacuum when it emerged from the nozzle. Even shortly before landing on the surface, the Apollo 11 lander only used a third of the normal landing thrust and landed weakly horizontally instead of vertically, which left insufficient time to leave a small crater with the remaining low thrust.

In the second picture, for example, you can see from the track (which is slightly dark / brownish) under the engine how the lunar module landed from right to left, on the feet you can see postponements of moon dust. The third picture of the LM foot shows the lunar dust build-up caused by the landing and shows a smooth surface in the foreground as the engine blew away the topmost layer of dust.

Armstrong noticed the fact of the missing crater shortly after the descent during the engine inspection. He reports this immediately via radio. This contradicts the assumption that the crater was forgotten during the photo manipulation.

  • The Apollo 11 Lunar Module with no crater under the engine

  • Large view of the country situation

  • Large view around the LM foot

Jet flame during departure

Apollo-17 lunar module launch with no engine flame visible

When the lander took off, contrary to the expectations of many spectators, there was no flame to be seen. Conspiracy theorists see this as evidence that the lander must have been moved in a different way. The engines used a fuel combination of nitrous tetroxide as an oxidizer and a hydrazine mixture . Unlike many other fuel combinations, this fuel burns with a barely visible flame . It is a common misconception that every burn is accompanied by flashes of flames. In contrast to the solid fuel boosters, the oxygen-hydrogen combination used for the Space Shuttle Main Engines also burns with a barely visible flame.

In addition, there is no atmosphere on the moon with which the hot gases could have reacted - for this reason, too, there cannot have been a pronounced flame.

The hatches of the Apollo modules

Because of the bulky spacesuits, many eyewitnesses have doubts as to whether the astronauts will even fit through the apparently small-looking entry and through hatches. So conspiracy theorists take this as evidence that the Apollo modules were pure scenery. In contrast to this assumption, however, photos and films of the moon and test runs on earth show that the entry hatch is large enough. The hatch was successfully tested on the Apollo 9 mission (Earth orbit) when switching from the command module to the lunar module. The hatch between the lunar module (LM) and the command service module (CSM) was not used with the spacesuit on.

A good example of successfully traversing the manhole is the exit from LM by Neil A. Armstrong of Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr.

  • Apollo AS11-40-5862.jpg
  • Apollo AS11-40-5863.jpg
  • Apollo AS11-40-5866.jpg

Driving characteristics of the moon mobile

On the moon there is only one sixth of the earth's gravity . Conspiracy theorists draw the conclusion that the wheels of the lunar vehicle (rover) should have spun when accelerating and cornering should have caused the lunar vehicle to break away like on black ice. According to physics, the frictional force is determined from the product of weight and the coefficient of friction. The latter was much better than rubber tires due to the design of the wheels. The grip on the moon was thus significantly better than on earth in poor road conditions; the maximum speed was 13 km / h.

Space requirement of the moon mobile

The four-wheeled moon mobile Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) had a size similar to a commercially available small car. Conspiracy theorists take this as a basis and claim that it could never have been stowed away like this and would have created too great a burden. They are partly right because the LRV was actually too big for the Apollo modules. So it was simply folded up and transported in the side of the lander. For these missions, modified lunar landing modules were used that approached the moon on fuel-saving trajectories that then no longer automatically led back to earth (for the first time with Apollo 13 ; with Apollo 8 , 11 and 12 it was orbits with automatic return to earth in the event of a mission abort ). Apollo 11 and 12 needed additional fuel to slow down and had the lowest payload. In Apollo 17 , the command capsule braked on a deep lunar orbit, which achieved the highest payload for the lunar module.

Computer technology

The computers of the late 1960s were larger than today's commercially available PCs , but hardly more powerful than today's pocket calculators . Landing support in real time or the calculation of the return flight path on board the Apollo spacecraft was therefore hardly imaginable. Conspiracy theorists see this as a falsification of the entire lunar landing program. However, the trajectories were not calculated in the spaceship, but on the high-performance computers of the time in the NASA ground station and transmitted to the on-board computers of the command capsule and the ferry. These worked in a similar way to an autopilot and only converted the information transferred from Houston into control commands for the individual phases of the mission. Nevertheless, they were powerful enough to control the navigation and the monitoring of some functions of the moon landing module, such as the antenna control (see error 1201 & 1202 in Apollo 11 ), in real time.

For this reason, there was much more manual flight in the era of space flight than today. Only the NASA on-board computers of the space shuttle program, developed a few years later, were able to calculate the complex maneuvers in real time and to control the shuttle on their own.

Conversely, this argument also contradicts the thesis of the conspiracy theorists that the measuring instruments, which are undisputedly on the moon, were built by unmanned flights using remote-controlled robots. The seismographs and many other measuring instruments, which had to be installed over a larger area on the lunar surface in order to function properly, required a very complex structure that could not have been computerized or manually controlled by robots of the time.

Different aspects

Space dangers

Even today, space travel is still struggling to get people safely into space and back again, see the Challenger disasters in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, or the space disasters in general . Transferred to the equally safe Apollo missions, it can be assumed that this would have made the moon landing impossible. It should be noted, however, that the NASA budget was severely cut with the end of the Apollo program and later also with the fall of the Iron Curtain . The danger of the moon landing was never denied and was a conscious risk taken (quote John F. Kennedy : “ We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard ”(German:“ We decide in this decade to go to the moon and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are difficult. ”)). After the dramatic Apollo 13 mission , officially due to the high costs, but primarily out of understandable concern for the astronauts (in the event of another disaster, the entire Apollo program might have been shelved), some of the Apollo programs that had already been planned were Missions canceled and important mission sequences of these distributed to the remaining missions.

Capricorn company

A theory that most conspiracy theorists have avoided by now is the assumption that in the film Enterprise Capricorn (Capricorn One) by director Peter Hyams leftover footage of the alleged moon landing fraud was used. However, the similarity of the images is no coincidence - the film was shot in 1977, eight years after the first moon landing. Some scenes were modeled on the images of the Apollo missions. The film was similarly about a fictitious expedition to Mars .

Moon rocks

382 kilograms of lunar rock were brought back from the moon landings . Supporters of the conspiracy theory see this as no evidence and point to finds of lunar meteorites on Earth. Scientists around the world studied the lunar rocks. It could minerals , for example tranquillityite and armalcolite that only when there is no atmosphere in large quantities searchable 3 He-isotope and other partially previously unknown isotopes such as neptunium 237 Np or the unusually high proportion of uranium 235 U, determined. The lunar rock samples thus differ chemically from rocks found on earth and show clear impacts from micrometeorites .

The same impacts can not be found on meteorites that hit the earth, as their surface is melted when they enter the earth's atmosphere and the traces of micrometeorites are destroyed in this way. In addition, the Apollo samples contained short-lived radioactive isotopes caused by the permanent radiation on the moon. The stones also lacked the earthly hydration shell (= water shell ). as the water completely disappeared from the surface of the stones in a high vacuum . In addition, the lunar meteorites show traces of earthly weathering , which cannot be detected in Apollo samples.

From the various samples from the Apollo missions in 2005 at the Universities of Münster , Cologne, Oxford and the ETH Zurich, the age of the moon was determined to be 4.527 billion (± 10 million) years.

The sampling of the moon rocks is documented in detail; This means that the samples were dismantled, dug up, crushed and stowed directly on the moon while the television broadcast was on. Therefore, the documented rock samples can be compared with those distributed around the world and clearly identified in terms of time and space. The alleged use of lunar meteorites for this sampling is therefore unlikely in this context. An assumed sampling on earth with artificially produced rocks, as part of the conspiracy theory, would have influenced their chemical composition (see water envelope) to such an extent that falsification with such artificially produced rock samples is excluded.

The earliest finds of lunar meteorites begin in 1979, after which only around 40 lunar meteorites with a total mass of less than 30 kilograms were found. Around one in 1200 meteorites found is a lunar meteorite. In view of the amount of 381 kilograms of lunar rocks brought by NASA (the Soviet Luna mission later brought a few more hundred grams of lunar rock to Earth) and the fact that a lunar meteorite was first detected in 1982, it can be ruled out that it was published by NASA Rock comes from meteorites. Considering today's prices for lunar meteorites of around 1,000 to 40,000 US dollars per gram, depending on the rarity and demand, the value of NASA finds can be estimated at 0.4 to 15 billion US dollars. A hypothetical purchase of lunar meteorites to replenish the presented 381 kilograms is out of the question, as it would have taken up a large part of NASA's budget.

Earth rise - earth set

Apollo 8 image of the rising earth from lunar orbit

During the filming of the Apollo missions, earth rises and sets can be seen. In view of the fact that the moon always faces the same side of the earth, conspiracy theorists rule out the authenticity of the film recordings. In fact, the earth has different positions in the photos. However, the observations were not made on the moon, but from the lunar orbit. The spacecraft disappeared behind the back of the moon several times and moved back towards Earth.

Conspiracy theorists also claim that the size of the earth in relation to the size of the moon is improbably small, as the moon on earth is seen larger than the earth (which is, in fact, larger) in this Apollo 8 image .

As with the photo of Apollo 8 presented here, it can easily be assumed without prior knowledge that these images were taken from the surface of the moon. However, this can be ruled out on closer inspection of the surfaces with the aid of cartographic moon data. The small craters visible here are several hundred meters, many even several kilometers in size. An astronaut cannot take such photos from the surface of the moon due to perspective inadequacies and because of the moon's curvature.

Test flights of the moon landing

LLRV 1964 at Edwards Air Force Base

Many conspiracy theorists have argued that Neil Armstrong crash-landed all of the lunar module test flights on Earth. That would have been a bad omen for the moon landing. However, the test flights mentioned were training flights with a total of three models of a jet-powered simulator : the LLTV . This aircraft was not technically related to the actual landing vehicles. Out of several hundred successful flights, there were only three crashes due to technical defects, Armstrong was only involved as a pilot in the first crash.

Blueprints

The printed plans of the Saturn V were destroyed due to a lack of funding for a deposit. The plans were microfilmed before they were destroyed . Plans for the Saturn V can be found in several museums in the United States, and plans for the other components still exist. The majority of documents that are sensitive to storage, such as film recordings and photographs, have been secured against the ravages of time, but also against possible relocation to security media such as microfilms. The microfilms are stored in the fully air-conditioned rooms of the National Space Science Data Center .

Disappeared footage

In August 2006, NASA announced that 700 tapes with data and original video recordings of the Apollo 11 moon landing had been misplaced and could not be found. A NASA spokesman said on CNN that it was not easy to find them in the millions of tapes in archive warehouses. Around 45 original tapes with the video recordings of the Apollo 11 moon landing were not found by July 2009, despite a three-year search. At the same time, NASA presented restored recordings of the moon landing, which are not based on the original recordings, but on copies of them. Their digital processing should lead to improved image quality, it was carried out by a company in Hollywood.

Statements from astronauts

Various video recordings of astronauts who seem to deny the moon landings are circulating on social media. These are fragments taken out of context that can lead to a wrong impression. Thus expresses Buzz Aldrin in 2015 recorded conversation with a student that was spread on YouTube, there was no moon landings - however, a complete record of the conversation shows that he is here referring to the period after the last missions in which it have given no further funding for it. Excerpts from an interview with the American ISS astronaut Terry Virts were also distributed, who seems to say that humans cannot travel beyond what is known as the low earth orbit , i.e. not to the moon. This is also a fragment that hides the fact that the speaker is referring to the current point in time ("right now" - since there are no launch vehicles required for this) and that a moon landing in the past is by no means denied.

Further reasoning for the moon landing

Today, NASA and other organizations would only maintain the alleged conspiracy as a motive to cultivate their image. Conspiracy theorists consider these to be sufficient to dismiss all the knowledge gained after the old moon landing conspiracy theory motifs were removed. The allegation is made that all of today's evidence only serves to maintain the conspiracy and is therefore falsified, inaccurate or inaccurate.

View of the landing sites

Photo of the Apollo 11 landing site in Mare Tranquillitatis , taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on March 7, 2012 from a height of 24 km

Powerful optical devices, such as the Hubble space telescope , can currently only image objects 60 meters or more on the moon, but the largest devices and vehicles left behind on the moon are smaller than 10 meters. In 2009, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter brought a probe with a camera into orbit over the lunar surface: It took photos from a great height before reaching the planned orbit, including the landing stations of the moon landings. Since 2012, images from the final orbit at an altitude of 20 to 50 kilometers have been available, which show the landing site of Apollo 11 in great detail. The landing module, the Passive Seismic Experiment Package , the Laser Ranging RetroReflector and the astronauts' footprints can be seen.

Conspiracy theorists had previously suggested that the United States would forge the lunar photographs, citing fake photographs prior to the Iraq war (2003). Further hopes for a verification of the NASA facts are directed towards the European space telescope Very Large Telescope in the Andes of South America, which for some time has installed a very powerful new optical system with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). At present, however, no imaging recordings are possible with this instrument.

In 2007, the company offered Google a 30 million US dollar prize ( Google Lunar X-Prize ) for anyone who would bring a robot to the moon by the end of March 2018 and, among other things, transmit photos of a moon landing site. The goal has not been reached.

Physical proof

Even with simple earthly means, the moon landing could be proven on the basis of the existing film recordings - with physical formulas. Since on the moon the force of gravity is only one sixth in relation to the earth, but the mass remains identical, there are motion sequences that are not possible on earth and could not be reproduced in film at the time. The astronauts were able to get up in a kneeling position simply using the leverage of their massive upper body and backpack, or they could easily get back to a standing position from push-ups by hand and a little momentum - achievements that are impossible on earth even for top athletes. There is plenty of video material from Apollo missions 11 to 17 available for this. Conspiracy theorists explain these recordings as a special effect with the help of ropes that were removed from the recording by retouching , but overlook the interplay of atmospheric influences, the great freedom of movement of the astronauts and the physical conditions (e.g. the movements of the moon dust). These factors could by no means be achieved through the special effects of the time, even with today's computer technology this would be very time-consuming and difficult and could not be implemented down to the last detail.

Everyday life: measuring the distance between earth and moon

Apollo 11 Laser Ranging Retroreflector

The reflectors placed on the moon at the Apollo landings have been reflecting laser beams emitted by the earth since they were installed . From so-called laser ranging stations, lasers aim at the retroreflectors at the landing sites (for example on Apollo 11 about 15 meters south of the lunar module) and then receive a light reflection back with a measured delay (average 2.6 seconds). According to Ulf Merbold , the mirrors have been used at regular intervals since they were installed to measure the distance between the moon and earth. Conspiracy theorists, however, claim that the reflectors may have been brought in later by unmanned spacecraft, similar to what the Soviet Union did with its Luna program . For example, the Lunochod  1 moon mobile of the Luna 17 mission, which started on November 17, 1970, had a laser reflector on board, which, unlike those in the USA, was not placed on the lunar surface by astronauts and aligned with the earth, but was attached to the moon mobile and only worked as planned during the maneuver phase of the mission. After 322 days, Lunochod 1 froze forever on the lunar night due to its finally used up radioactive decay battery (thermal energy from the continuous decay of Polonium -210). Since the moon mobile had previously been parked inconveniently, no reflections from its laser reflector could be recorded until 2010. In March 2010, Luna 17 and Lunochod 1 were finally discovered on images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter . On April 22, 2010 the Apache Point Observatory successfully carried out laser measurements using the reflector from Lunochod 1. The Soviet Union brought a second reflector to the moon during the Luna 21 mission with the improved Lunochod 2, which was kept in operation without interruption even after the probe failed. This reflector now serves as a backup for the three retroreflectors of the USA from the missions (in order of priority) Apollo 15, 11 and 14. The reflector of the Luna 17 mission is even recognized, although it has not been used for almost 40 years of the achievements of the Soviet Union listed in the priority lists just after the other four reflectors. Research institutions worldwide aim at the four retro-reflectors at regular intervals.

Contemporary witnesses on radios

The radio signals from the astronauts could be received worldwide (including radio amateurs and facilities such as the Bochum public observatory ). The astronauts' response time roughly corresponded to the delay that was to be expected due to the distance between the earth and the moon. Since directional antennas aligned and continuously tracked were required to receive the weak signals (a 20-meter parabolic antenna was used in Bochum), the signals must actually have come from the direction of the moon; Satellites in earth orbit can therefore be excluded. A satellite around the moon is also ruled out because it would have been regularly in the radio shadow behind the moon (as was the case with the Apollo capsule), but telemetry data from the lander could be received continuously. A satellite would have entered a polar orbit and then rotated it by almost 90 degrees in order to be able to ensure an uninterrupted connection to Earth for several days. The amount of fuel required for this would have exceeded the payload capacity even of the Saturn 5 many times over. In addition, a satellite would first have to be launched with a “moon-capable” launch vehicle, which could not have happened unnoticed. In addition, the alignment of this satellite in the lunar orbit would have taken several days, and the position and confirmation data necessarily continuously sent by the satellite would inevitably have been noticed by independent stations on earth.

Comparison of publications and scientific studies of samples

Comparison of the moon rock samples

The separately conducted investigations of the moon rock samples from the US Apollo missions with those of the Soviet Luna rock samples, which were only a few hundred grams, have shown analogies that would not be possible with artificial rock samples.

Slide piece from the University of Bern

The Institute of Physics at the University of Bern received a piece of aluminum foil back from the Apollo 11 mission , which it had contributed as the only non-American experiment. Due to the conditions prevailing on the moon, there are sun particles on the foil that can not be found in this composition on earth because of its magnetic field .

Seismological records

The seismometers installed on the lunar surface during the Apollo 15 and Apollo 17 missions recorded the vibrations of the lunar floor over a period of five years and transmitted them to the earth. Since then, these records have been evaluated many times to localize moonquakes and to explore the inner structure of the moon. In recent years, methods have been used that were completely unknown in 1969 (especially noise interferometry ). Since these evaluation methods were only developed in recent years, the 1969 data could not have been falsified with regard to them.

Camera failure at Apollo 12

The Apollo 12 mission (November 14–24, 1969) was supposed to use a color television camera for the first time, but it failed at the start of the broadcast because one of the astronauts held it directly against the sunlight when it was set up. Thus, during the hours of direct broadcast of the moon walk, instead of the previously widely announced color images, only indefinable light strips could be seen. It hardly seems understandable that a landing staged with great effort in a studio, which was supposed to suggest the most convincing images possible, would not have had a replacement camera and would have been used.

Confirmation by the Soviet Union

The space journalist Jaroslaw Kirillowitsch Golowanow wrote on the secrecy of the Soviet lunar program: “Secrecy was necessary so that no one would overtake us. But later, when they did overtake us, we had to maintain secrecy so that no one knew that we had been overtaken. ”A cosmonaut at the time, Alexei Leonow , said that he kept his fingers crossed for the Americans to make the flight a success. The historian Sven Felix Kellerhoff pointed out that the Soviet Union never doubted the moon landing. According to Holm Hümmler , the Soviet Union had also confirmed the landing.

Cultural reflection

  • In the James Bond film Diamond Fever from 1971, Bond moves on a company site near Las Vegas , which is not far from the real Area 51 . On the run from his opponents, he crossed a hall in which astronauts in space suits move against a lunar backdrop, and on his further escape even used a kind of lunar vehicle. These scenes have nothing to do with the rest of the film's content and are seen as a reference by director Guy Hamilton to the moon landing conspiracy theories.
  • For the film Enterprise Capricorn (1978) see #Unternehmen Capricorn .
  • In the film Sneakers - Die Lautlosen (1992) the character Mother (played by Dan Aykroyd ) mentions in a conversation that NASA only faked the moon landing.
  • The American rock band REM addressed the subject in their 1992 song Man on the Moon .
  • In the episode Carbon Creek of the SciFi series Star Trek: Enterprise , a Vulcan whose people closely observed human space travel in the 20th century suggests that Neil Armstrong was not the first man on the moon.
  • The computer game Duke Nukem 3D (1996) contains a level (episode 3, level 5) with the lunar module in a film set.
  • The historical comedy The Dish , produced in 2000, deals with the problem of the image transmission of this event. The Australian Parkes Observatory should receive the images and forward them to Houston. However, technical mishaps and failures by employees make this difficult. Nevertheless, Houston was able to broadcast live images. The script was written as a comedy in collaboration with the staff at the time and is based on actual events.
  • In an episode of the animated series Family Guy , the end of the filming of the moon landing is shown in a flashback . When Neil Armstrong leaves the studio, he is approached by a passerby and asked why he is not on the moon. The passer-by is then killed by Armstrong without further ado. In another episode, the main character Peter claims that his healing powers were just as much a lie as the moon landing (2000, Season 2, Episode 9: Deadly Healthy ).
  • In the episode Roswell all good - all good in the animated series Futurama , in which the crew is mysteriously thrown into the year 1947, she meets the then US President Truman. He orders the alien Dr. Bring Zoidberg to Area 51 for study purposes. When a general points out to him that the backdrop for the fake moon landing is being built there, he orders a real moon landing to be carried out and NASA to be founded.
  • The mockumentary Kubrick, Nixon and the man in the moon (2002) shows that the first manned moon landing was faked. This shows how skillful manipulation works.
  • In the computer game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) a film set with a lunar module is shown, which is, however, in a porn film studio.
  • The computer game Worms 3D (2003) by Team17 contains a level that shows a film studio with an artificial moon surface and the landing module.
  • The music video for the Rammstein song Amerika (2004) shows a band wearing spacesuits on a film set, as does the video for On Top of the World by Imagine Dragons (2013).
  • The remake of the arcade game -Klassikers Area 51 (2005) by Midway Games contains a level with Mondlandeset, complete with cardboard cutouts and lander.
  • A 2006 commercial for Red Bull showed astronauts who, after drinking the drink that gives them wings, were unable to step on the moon. Houston then orders them to return to Earth to film the moon landing in a studio.
  • In the comedy Die Chaoscamper (2006) a character comments that the holiday destination is the same place where NASA pretended the moon landing.
  • The conspiracy theories about the moon landing have already been parodistically worked up as a brick film by amateur filmmakers .
  • In a special episode of Mythbusters , some of the arguments of the conspiracy theorists were dealt with and these were re-enacted experimentally. These included the non-parallel shadows, the illuminated Buzz Aldrin in the shadow of the lunar module, the waving flag, the question of whether you can leave a clear footprint in a vacuum, and the falsification of the reduced gravity in the videos using various techniques. Furthermore, the reflector of Apollo 15 was illuminated with a laser. None of the tests conducted gave evidence of a conspiracy.
  • In the feature film Interstellar (2014), the teaching staff assume that the landing on the moon was a propaganda campaign aimed at ruining the Soviet Union.
  • In the animated film Minions (2015) the three actors Kevin, Bob and Stuart find themselves in a scene in the USA in 1968 in the middle of a film studio in which two astronauts are about to hoist the US flag on the "lunar floor".
  • In episode 3x10 of the series Rick and Morty , Rick, on the run from the US President, passes a film set in rooms below the White House in which the moon landing is staged. In episode 1x04, the same was already shown as simulated by aliens, also in the form of a part of an escape through secret rooms lasting a few seconds.

Film and photography

Movies

watch TV

Apollo Multimedia Archive

The Apollo Multimedia Archive is a library of the most important film and photo recordings of the Apollo missions, compiled for Internet users, and is entirely in English.

Video library Photo library
Apollo 11 Apollo 11
Apollo 12 Apollo 12
- Apollo 13
Apollo 14 Apollo 14
Apollo 15 Apollo 15
Apollo 16 Apollo 16
Apollo 17 Apollo 17

See also

Conspiracy theory texts

  • Mary Bennett, David S. Percy: Dark Moon. Apollo and the Whistle Blowers. Aulis, London 1999, ISBN 1-898541-10-8 .
  • Gernot L. Geise: The greatest fraud of the century? The Apollo moon flights. EFODON, Hohenpeißenberg 2000, ISBN 3-932539-23-0 .
  • Charles T. Hawkins: The Moon Landing Hoax. GTI, New York 2004, ISBN 0-9749405-0-X .
  • Bill Kaysing , Randy Reid: We Never Went to the Moon. America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle. Health Research, Pomeroy 1976, ISBN 0-7873-0487-5 .
  • Philippe Lheureux: Moon Landings. Did NASA Lie? Carnot, New York 2003, ISBN 1-59209-041-9 .
  • Ralph Rene: NASA mooned America! Passaic, New Jersey 1992 ( PDF ; 1.83 MB).
  • Gerhard Wisnewski : Lies in Space. From the moon landing to world domination. Knaur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-426-77755-X .

literature

  • Thomas Eversberg: Hollywood in Space - Were we really on the moon? Springer Spectrum, Heidelberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-8274-3021-2 .
  • Werner Büdeler : The adventure of the moon landing. Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1969.
  • Phil Plait: Bad Astronomy. Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax". Wiley, New York 2002, ISBN 0-471-40976-6 , pp. 155-174.
  • Rainer Kresken, Thorsten Dambeck: The Apollo plot. In: Image of Science . No. 9, 2007, pp. 94-97.

Web links

Confrontations with the conspiracy theory:

Pages representing the conspiracy theory:

Other:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartmut Bossel: Chance, Plan and Delusion. 2010, ISBN 978-3-8423-3524-0 , p. 341 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  2. ^ Rose MM Wagner: Community Networks in the USA. LIT Verlag, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-8258-3600-2 , p. 90 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  3. ↑ quoted in Associated Press: Hoaxers vs. Rocket Scientists: Even NASA unsure how to counter claims of faked moon landings. December 21, 2002.
  4. ↑ 50 years of NASA: The most expensive party in history. In: Spiegel online. July 26, 2008.
  5. ↑ NASA video archive: The relevant film recordings - Geology Station 4 at the Stone Mountain Cincos
  6. ↑ NASA Archives: Apollo 16: Mission Time 144: 46: 38, 2 m 52s ( RealVideo )
  7. ↑ NASA Archives: Apollo 16: Mission Time 144: 52: 40, 2 m 50s (RealVideo)
  8. ↑ NASA Archives: Apollo 16; Mission time 144: 49: 35, 3 m 13s (RealVideo)
  9. ↑ NASA Archives: Apollo 16 Conversation Protocol
  10. ↑ NASA archive: Apollo 16 audio excerpt from the conversation log, mission time 144: 41: 56, 10 m 33s ( MP3 , 1.2 MB ) and mission time 144: 52: 14, 5 m 36s (MP3, 0.6 MB)
  11. ↑ NASA recording of the press conference on August 12, 1969 (question reporter "When you looked up at the sky, could you actually see the stars in the solar corona in spite of the glare?" At minute 47:16; answers Armstrong / Collins from minute 48:23)
  12. ^ NASA transcript of the press conference on August 12, 1969
  13. ↑ a b Hasselblad in space. ( Memento from December 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) December 26, 2015.
  14. ↑ 3sat .online: The Hasselblad Story - nano at Photokina ( Memento from February 20, 2001 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ Photography training on earth
  16. ↑ a b Compilation of the Hasselblad documents (English), February 2001.
  17. ↑ NASA false images : AS12-46-6715 , AS12-46-6738
  18. ^ Hasselblad Camera Information , March 19, 2001.
  19. ↑ Specification of the films
  20. ↑ Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
  21. ↑ Apollo Lunar Surface Journal Fun Images, The Real Secret of Apollo 12
  22. ↑ How does the letter C get on the stone? - Comparison between original and fake ( Memento from July 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ↑ Apollo 11 Video Library: Lunar module video recording of the flag raising (1 h 10 min, 11.6 MB, Quicktime Movie), mission time: 109: 37: 30
  24. ↑ Apollo 11 Video Library: Moon-stationary video recording of the flag-raising (3 min 33 sec, MPEG), mission time: 110: 09: 50
  25. ^ NASA: Advanced Life Support. Baseline Values ​​and Assumptions Document: JSC 47804 ( Memento of October 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ). (PDF, 4.8 MB, English), p. 85, table 5.2.3
  26. ↑ Bonn University Clinic for Radiology, interesting facts about radiation protection with ionizing radiation. ( Memento from February 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  27. ↑ Apollo and America's moon landing program: lunar module reference: world spaceflight news special report . Progressive Management, Mount Laurel (NJ) 2000, ISBN 1-893472-07-8 - p. 128.
  28. ↑ One Small Step. In: www.hq.nasa.gov. Retrieved July 27, 2016 .
  29. ^ Matthias Seidel: Analysis of the Apollo navigation computers with regard to their software quality and robustness. (PDF) June 15, 2016, accessed on August 2, 2019 .
  30. ^ Don Eyles: Tales from the Lunar Module Guidance Computer. In: American Astronautical Society . February 6, 2004, accessed July 26, 2019 .
  31. ↑ a b ZDF (theme week 40 years moon landing): Long Night with Harald Lesch - Adventure Research: Intermediate Station Moon - The Path into Space. July 20, 2009, 12:20 a.m.
  32. ^ Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, December 18, 2017.
  33. ↑ Michail Hengstenberg: Lost Moonstone: Shrinkage is everywhere at spiegel.de/wissenschaft
  34. ↑ ETH researchers determine the age of the moon. In: NZZ Online. November 25, 2005.
  35. ↑ Washington University in St. Louis: Lunar Meteorites (English), accessed August 27, 2012.
  36. ↑ National Space Science Data Center: Homepage of the NASA Archives (English), May 1, 2006.
  37. ↑ Pictures from the first moon landing disappeared - Nasa can no longer find pictures from 1969 - material for conspiracy theories. ( Memento from October 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: ZDF heute.de . August 15, 2006.
  38. ↑ Original photos of the first moon landing disappeared. Handelsblatt .com, August 15, 2006, accessed on August 27, 2012 .
  39. ↑ n-tv .de: "Black holes" at NASA - moon landing photos gone , December 26, 2015.
  40. ^ One small step for man, 700-box tape loss for NASA. Original recordings of Apollo moon missions are missing ( Memento from August 20, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) In: CNN. August 15, 2006 (English).
  41. ↑ Moon landing: Apollo photos are supposed to convert conspiracy theorists. In: Spiegel online. July 8, 2009, accessed August 13, 2012 .
  42. ↑ Moon images lost forever - original images disappeared. n-tv, July 17, 2009, accessed August 13, 2012 .
  43. ↑ The Mirror: Was the moon landing FAKED? Buzz Aldrin appears to admit he never visited the lunar surface , July 30, 2018, accessed January 10, 2019
  44. ↑ NASA Astronaut tells Truth about Moon landing on YouTube , accessed January 11, 2019.
  45. ↑ NASA: LRO Sees Apollo Landing Sites (English), accessed on August 27, 2012.
  46. ↑ NASA: Apollo 11: 'A Stark Beauty All Its Own'. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission, March 3, 2012. (English)
  47. ↑ Harald Zaun: Is the end of the moon hoax legend coming? . In: Telepolis. February 9, 2004.
  48. ↑ About the Google Lunar XPRIZE. ( Memento of March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) December 26, 2015. (English)
  49. ↑ NASA: Apollo 11 information (English), May 24, 2005.
  50. ↑ NASA: Laser Ranging Retroreflector (English), October 12, 2005.
  51. ↑ Lunar Reflectors: A short compilation of all lunar reflectors (English), July 21, 2004.
  52. ↑ International Laser Ranging Service: Overview of the Lunar Reflectors ( Memento of August 23, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (English), March 2, 2006.
  53. ↑ Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy: Wettzell Laser Ranging System ( Memento from December 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  54. ^ University of Texas McDonald Observatory: McDonald Laser Ranging Station (English), December 11, 2000.
  55. ↑ ILRS: Merger of all major laser ranging stations (English), January 3, 2006.
  56. ↑ AM Abdrakhimov, AT Basilevsky: Lunokhod 1: The position of the first soviet rover. Laboratory for Comparative Planetology, March 17, 2010, accessed March 31, 2010 .
  57. ↑ UCSD Physicists Locate Long Lost Soviet Reflector on Moon lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov, (access = April 29, 2010)
  58. ↑ ILRS: Priorities of the laser exposure of the retro reflectors (English), December 26, 2015.
  59. ↑ Overview of the observation stations , Wettzell Observatory, accessed on June 10, 2018.
  60. ↑ IUZ Observatory Bochum: The Chronicle of the Moon Landing ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  61. ↑ Satellite observation stations from the 1960s - Prof. Heinz Kaminski, DJ5YM from Bochum , October 22, 2005.
  62. ↑ IUZ Observatory Bochum: Moon landing - myth or truth? ( Memento from April 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  63. ↑ Was the moon landing real? Contribution by the astronomer Harald Lesch in the alpha-Centauri series
  64. ↑ Bern on the moon. In: The online magazine of the University of Bern: - Bern in space: From the moon to Jupiter . University of Bern, June 16, 2019, accessed on July 16, 2019.
  65. ↑ Albert Einstein Medal - Laudation , June 6, 2001.
  66. ^ Paul Blau: Moon: TV failure - Hardly any repair chance. In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . November 20, 1969, pp. 1-2 , accessed July 14, 2009 . "The image received in Houston showed a white stripe above and a large black field below."
  67. ↑ Why the Soviets Lost the Moon Race on airspacemag.com (accessed October 25, 2019)
  68. ↑ One giant ... lie? Why so many people still think the moon landings were faked , The Guardian on July 10, 2019.
  69. ↑ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : Why conspiracy theorists still doubt in Die Welt from July 5, 2019
  70. ↑ "From the first day there were doubters" in the Spiegel on July 18, 2019
  71. ↑ www.brickshelf.com: NASA video. ( MPG ; 6.4 MB) ( MPEG-1 ; as of October 31, 2006)


This article was added to the list of excellent articles on December 23, 2006 in this version .