The results of recent surveys have shown that roughly 20% of Americans still believe, to this day, that the U.S. never really did make it to the moon. Conspiracy theorists even came up with the theory that the first ever moon landing was faked by the U.S. government as a way to claim victory in the space race against Russia. Of course they had to come up several reasons to support the claim and the following are just 10 of the many reasons why.
10. The Waving Flag
When the first moon landing was broadcasted on live television, it was obvious how the American flag seemed to be waving and fluttering as astronauts, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, planted it. This wouldn’t have been such an issue except for the fact that there is no air in the moon’s atmosphere and therefore no wind whatsoever to cause such an effect on the flag.
9. Lack of Impact Crater
The next claim puts forth the notion that there should be a blast crater underneath the lunar module, as a way of its marking its landing, but there were clearly none; no crater was visible both on video footage and photographs of the landings. Even the fine lunar dust covering the moon’s surface didn’t seem to have been displaced.
8. Multiple Light Sources
The moon only has one strong light source and that happens to be the sun which is why it’s common sense that all shadows in videos or photographs of the moon landings should run parallel to each other. This wasn’t the case, however, and shadows appeared to be falling in different directions suggesting that there might have been multiple light sources – like that on a film set instead of the moon.
7. The Van Allen Radiation Belt
The Van Allen radiation belt surrounds the Earth and is held in practically the same place by the Earth’s magnetic field. It is said that astronauts have to pass through this belt to get to the moon. The catch here, however, is that the belt contains high levels of radiation which could have fried the astronauts, with their not-quite-so-advanced protective layers and coatings, as they made their way to the moon.
6. The Unexplained Object
As seen in the above photograph from the Apollo 12 mission, conspiracy theorists were quick to spot a mysterious object in the reflection of the astronaut’s helmet which bore a very similar resemblance to an overhead spotlight common in film studios. But given the poor quality of the photograph, it’s hard to say if the speculation stands to be true or otherwise.
5. Slow-Motion Walking and Hidden Cables
Another claim that suggests the moon landings are nothing more than a hoax is that slow-motion walking due to the low-gravity conditions on the moon had been mimicked by the astronauts – if you happen to take footage of the moon landings and increase the speed by 2.5x, you’ll see that the astronauts appear to be moving at a speed just like on Earth. The impressive jump height, on the other hand, was attributed to hidden cables and wires.
4. Lack of Stars
This particular argument is pretty convincing since there is after all no clouds on the moon which means stars are extremely visible and much brighter on the moon than through the filter of the Earth’s atmosphere. In photographic and video evidence – even those that were of high quality – no stars could be spotted.
3. The “C” Rock
The photo of the “C” rock – a rock which appears to have the letter “C” engraved into it – is one of the more famous photos from the moon landings. Because the letter appears to be pretty much symmetrical, many conspiracy theorists believed that it could not have been a product of some natural occurrence and that the rock may very well be a prop with the letter “C” as a marker.
2. The Layered Cross-Hairs
There is nothing unusual about cross-hairs and them appearing in photos of the moon landings because the cameras used by the astronauts made use of these cross-hairs as a guide when it came to scaling and direction. What made it unusual was that in some photos, the cross-hairs appeared behind some of the objects in that scene which suggested that the photos had been edited or retouched after they were taken.
1. The Duplicate Backdrop
The two photos on the top, even though taken miles apart, clearly have identical backdrops; as shown in the third photograph at the bottom. Hardcore conspiracy theorists believed that NASA may have simply made use of the same background even when filming different scenes of the moon landings.