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Written by Patrick Omari
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Friday, 28 August 2009 12:10 |
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This final look into the conspiracy theory that men never landed on the moon will examine more misguided and incorrect statements made by moon hoax theorists. This will complete my attempt to end some of the misinformation that has been spread over the last few years.
We kick off this article by examining a claim that I only personally discovered in the last couple of months. This 'evidence' involves the still images taken by the astronauts when on the journey to the moon and when they were on the surface. Several hoax theorists have claimed that all the images taken were perfect and that this would have been impossible given the chest-mounted Hassleblad cameras the astronauts were using. This argument is ludicrous in every extreme as it shows how little research the hoax theorists have made before making such a bold claim.
A simple search on an internet search engine such as Google will provide websites with dedicated archives of the Apollo moon mission photographs. The range of photographs on offer will depend on the website, however some have available the full range of images for viewing and downloading. What will become clear to even the most casual viewer is that the claim that all photographs were perfect is complete nonsense.
One of the most popular Apollo websites contains the full Hassleblad camera magazines that are completely unedited and show the sequence of photographs as they were taken on the surface of the moon. These photographs illustrate that not all images were perfect - far from it in fact. Many of the photographs suffer from sun glare resulting in bright red patches on them. Other photographs were simply taken with the camera pointing at nothing as can often happen to anyone taking a photograph on this planet.
This complete lack of research by the hoax theorists shows their reluctance to even source the most basic evidence before making a wild claim. The only reason I can see for this assumption by the hoax theorists is that they have only visited websites or read books that have used a chosen selection of photographs. Surely it must be obvious to them that a book or a website selecting certain images will only choose the best and clearest images? Would you publish a book with anything other than a perfect picture? Of course not. This remedial oversight simply casts more and more doubt on the validity of the hoax theorists claims. If they can fail so miserably on a point such as this how can the rest of their claims be taken seriously?
Radiation
One of the biggest points the host theorists make is to do with radiation. The claim is that the Van Allen radiation belts that circle the earth would have killed or seriously injured the astronauts had they gone into them or passed through them. This once again is where the theorists get their facts incorrect.
Firstly every single Space Shuttle mission passes into these belts. This has been countered by the hoax theorists suggesting that the Shuttle only passes into the lower regions, which i will give them - this is correct. However the effects of the belts is still significant even at the edges.
However what is often overlooked is the Gemini programme that ran from 1964-66. The first two missions were unmanned however making the 1965-66 missions the relevant ones for the raditaion tests NASA made. These were seen partly as a preparatory set of missions for the Apollo programme. The Gemini missions passed deep into these belts and not only passed into them but stayed there.
What we have to remember is that if anything the Apollo astronauts were exposed to less radiation as they passed through the belts at high speed on their way to the moon than the Gemini astronauts who stayed in them for significant time. No Gemini astronauts suffered from any radiation problems upon their safe return to the earth, the same as all the Apollo astronauts.
It has also been suggested that the astronauts would have perished on the moon due to solar flares as they were without the luxury of the Van Allen radiation belts to protect them. In one way the hoax theorists are correct in that a strong true solar flare would have killed the astronauts.
Today many people fail to understand the level of risk that the astronauts were taking in their missions to the moon. All the men were more than aware of the dangers associated with travelling to the moon and that they would in fact die if a serious solar flare were to take place.
Despite this they were still prepared to take this risk. To not understand this is to fail to understand the dedication some people have to a task and should not always be judged by your own fears and motivation to achieve something. These were special human beings that were professional risk-takers, why else were they chosen?
Spotting the Lunar Landers and Apollo equipment
The Apollo lunar missions left equipment on the moon such a Lunar Rover cars, parts of the Apollo lunar lander as well as various scientific experiments. So if this is the case why can we not just point a telescope at the moon and show them to put these arguments to bed once and for all?
This is an argument often heard and one the hoax theorists often repeat. They also suggest pointing the Hubble space telescope currently orbiting the earth at the moon to spot the Apollo equipment. This is another example of a lack of understanding from the hoax theorists as to how telescopes work. Let's take a look at this as well as examining a very exciting development that has come to light regarding spotting the Lunar landers as this article was being written.
To understand why it is impossible for any current telescope to photograph the Lunar Landers we need to indulge in a little mathematics. I will attempt to explain this as simply as possible as it can be very confusing.
Firstly let's estimate the size of the Lunar Lander to be 10m square (this is a slight over-estimation). Then we need to remember that the moon is approximately 350,000km away from the earth. These two pieces of data then need to be calculated with the following formula:
(10m)/(3.5 x 10^8m)*(180/PI) = 1.6 x 10^-6 degrees = 6 milliarcseconds.
The largest telescope available is the Hubble currently in orbit around the earth which has a resolution of 800x800 pixels of a 35 arcsecond field of view. Its pixel scale is 46 milliarcseconds.
So that is a lot of calculation but for most people leaves you no nearer understanding simply why Hubble cannot spot the lunar landers. To put in the simplest terms possible these calculations mean the lunar landers would have to be 15 times larger than they are to even appear as a dot to Hubble. This makes the task of trying to photograph them impossible.
So the lander cannot be spotted yet Hubble takes photographs of galaxies deep in the universe? Yes it does, however you have to remember that a galaxy is a huge target stretching hundreds of light years across. The Apollo landers are minutely small in comparison to a galaxy and the telescope simply cannot resolve the image to that fine detail.
So is there any way to photograph the lunar landers without landing back on the moon? Yes there is and for all you lunar hoax theorists the time may now have arrived to illustrate just how this can be achieved.
On the 18th of July 2009, just two days before the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing NASA released images of all the Apollo landing sites (bar Apollo 12) from their Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter sent to map the surface for future lunar landings beginning in 2020.
Due to the close proximity of the orbiter to the surface of the moon images it was capable of producing were stunning, especially those of the Apollo 14 landing site. These photographs showed quite clearly a trail of footprints left behind by the astronauts as well as a scientific experiment and the base of a lunar lander. This is one of the most compelling pieces of evidence against the hoax theorists that has been forthcoming in the last 40 years. Even more exciting is the confirmation by NASA that in the subsequent days more detailed images will be released showing the surface and the landing sites. At the time of writing this article we are awaiting the release of these.
I hope that this article and the ones that have proceeded it have helped you form an opinion as to the validity of the moon landings, and will have explained and debunked some of the most popular myths regarding the Apollo programme.
Let's hope that as the years pass more and more evidence comes to light to finally put to bed this conspiracy theory and allow everyone to revel in arguably the greatest achievement of mankind thus far. Let's not pick holes and attempt to deny genius and courage - all strong characteristics of the Apollo programme.
Patrick is an expert Research and Travel consultant. His current interest is in Manchester airport parking (http://www.holidayextras.co.uk/manchester-airport-parking.html), and Newcastle airport parking (http://www.holidayextras.co.uk/newcastle-airport-parking.html).
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