Thomas Eversberg - The Moon Hoax
Thomas Eversberg
The Moon
Hoax?
Conspiracy
Theories on Trial
Science and Fiction
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Thomas Eversberg
The Moon Hoax?
Conspiracy Theories on Trial
Thomas Eversberg
German Space Agency
Bonn, Germany
Translated into English by Markus Josef Geiss and Jordan Barr Holquist
Translation from the German language edition: “Hollywood im Weltall” by Thomas Eversberg. © Springer-Verlag GmbH 2013.
ISSN
2197-1188
ISSN
2197-1196 (electronic)
Science and Fiction
ISBN
978-3-030-05459-5 ISBN
978-3-030-05460-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05460-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018966595
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
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Cover illustration: Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during an Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA, Image number AS11-40-5875
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For Bine
Foreword
July 20, 1969: The first humans land on the Moon. The older generations
among us witnessed this event, whereas the younger generations have learned
about it from history books. A historic event! A giant leap for mankind! Or
maybe not? Could the event that was broadcast to millions of TVs possibly
have been staged: is this a case of a “Moon Hoax”? There have been persistent
rumors that the US space agency, NASA, tricked everyone with smoke and
mirrors, and that all of the technological advances were completely made up.
In the 1970s, the lies about the faked Moon landings were born. And nowa-
days, in the time of the Internet, where everyone is not only a consumer of
media but can also easily be the author and distributor of information, these
lies are being spread constantly. Other conspiracy theories, too, are once more
rearing their ugly heads, all on the World Wide Web.
Our human insistence on doubting and questioning events, claims, and
alleged facts is actually a positive aspect of our culture. These are inevitable
requirements to be able to understand correlations, to classify things, and to
increase knowledge. But where is the border between common sense and sci-
entific thinking on the one hand, and lack of understanding, confusion, and
ideological delusion on the other? What are we willing to accept as true and
what remains incompatible with our worldview?
Thomas Eversberg, PhD in astrophysics and an active professional in space
management, deals with the arguments of those who would question the trips
to the Moon in this book, The Moon Hoax?—Conspiracy Theories on Trial. By taking these arguments seriously and then confronting them with solid logic,
his analysis turns into a unique lesson. With penetrating clarity, he uses a tool from the philosophy of science called Occam’s Razor: According to this th
eory, the hypothesis describing a phenomenon with the fewest assumptions
vii
viii Foreword
should be preferred. Those requiring an unnecessarily large number of assump-
tions can be discarded as too complex (in a figure of speech: sliced off by the
razor blade).
It is the consistent application of this principle, a common practice in sci-
entific work and rational thinking, that makes Eversberg’s analysis significant
far beyond the topic at hand. The author shows not only the flaws in the argu-
ments of the Moon landing opponents—he shows more generally how seri-
ous arguments can be distinguished from fantasies. Anyone who reads this
book will become much more capable of navigating the vast flood of informa-
tion to be found in modern media without running the risk of being defrauded.
Spektrum der Wissenschaft Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
Uwe Reichert
Heidelberg, Germany
Acknowledgement
Who would have thought that a little boy enthusiastic about space would turn
into an astrophysicist that deals with the Moon landings 40 years later? I am
indebted to my grandmother, Ruth Wendland, who sensitively promoted my
interests, as did my father, Karl-Werner Eversberg. I would like to give a heartfelt thanks to him and my mother, Karin Eversberg, who gave me total freedom and
who always supported my curiosity and enthusiasm. Many friends inspired me
to give talks about the Moon landings and therefore contributed significantly to
this book through their various questions and thoughts. This particularly applies to a few people that I would like to mention here. The many discussions I had
with Andreas Boeckh instigated by his interest in science and the Moon, whether
at home or in the Swedish mountains, gave rise to many of my approaches in
this book. If he was ever bored by these weird thoughts of mine, he politely
never let me notice. Norbert Reinecke deserves special thanks and respect for his critical questions and comments about my endeavors as an astronomer, and his
support during rough times. I would like to thank Klaus Vollmann for our joint
scientific discussions, his dedication to scientific accuracy, and the work at our observatory for many years; even more so, because this work is often very tiring
and sometimes not the most enjoyable. Moreover, I would like to thank Anke
Gödersmann and Dieter Schaade for their inspiring discussions while sharing
delicious meals with me for many years. I further want to thank my uncle,
Abdelali Aouati, for the constant motivation and his unprecedented optimism.
And I thank my good friend Britta Schlörscheidt for motivating me during the
writing of the book. Also, thank you to Martina Mechler from Springer
Spektrum for her great help in creating this book. This also applies to my editor, Vera Spillner, who made a major contribution by asking professional and critical
questions while giving me careful recommendations. I also want to thank my
ix
x Acknowledgement
editor, Angela Lahee, for making the English edition possible. Last but not least, I would like to thank my wife Sabine for her affection and endless patience. I
especially appreciate her for these when I descend into logical questions, float off on stellar winds, or when I’m on the Moon once again.
Acknowledgement
xi
Fig. 1 The Saturn V Moon rocket with Apollo 11 on its way to the Moon. This rocket, the most powerful machine ever built, had a weight of almost 3000 metric tons, a total height of 111 meters, and developed a thrust of 3500 tons, or 160 million horse power.
Photo: NASA. No.: AP11-KSC-69PC-442
Contents
1 Prologue: The Conspiracy of the Faked Moon Landings
1
2 Russians, Rockets, and Election Campaigns
5
3 Proof I: The Dilemma
19
4 Stars are Missing in the Sky
23
5 But Look! The Flag Flutters!
31
6 A Lamp: Oblique Shadows
37
7 Manipulation of the Pictures
43
8 Is Everything in Slow Motion?
51
9 Telescopes Can See Everything
57
10 Warning! Hazardous Radiation!
63
11 Too Hot, Too Cold
69
xiii
xiv Contents
12 The Lander’s Exhaust Plume and Its Crater
73
13 Anything Else?
79
The Spacesuits Are Too Stiff
79
The Blue Windows
81
Sharp Footprints Cannot Be Made Without Water
81
The Computer Technology
84
The Rover Has Problems
86
Ghosts in the Lens
91
Ghosts on the Screen
95
The Rocket Man Meets Walt Disney
97
Where Are the Pictures?
100
Everything Is a Lie
101
14 Proof II: Rocks, Photos, and Stars 103
Distance Measurements
103
Moon Rocks
107
Radiowaves and Color TV
108
Probe Photos
113
The Stars in the Sky
115
15 What Can We Learn? 123
16 Technology, Money, and the Return to the Moon 137
Appendix A Apollo Drawings 149
Appendix B The Astronauts of the Moon Landing Missions 163
1
Prologue: The Conspiracy of the Faked
Moon Landings
A couple of years ago, many friends of mine asked whether I actually believed
in the American Moon landings of the 60s and 70s. I was not the least bit
surprised about this question. When I was a child, I unsurprisingly paid close
attention to the Moon landings and earnestly painted rockets in school. We
kids knew the names of our heroes by heart and fought over the question of
who would be the best astronaut. For some reason I thought Jim Lovell from
Apollo 8 was a particularly good astronaut, but Frank Borman also wasn’t bad.
My most envied possession was my Apollo-Quartet collectible card game, and
to feed my enthusiasm, my grandmother sent me a picture book about the
path to the Moon landings that I absolutely adored. The Moon landings are a
part of my childhood and they were the grounds for my passion about space,
as well as for my technical and scientific interests. Lastly, these missions were the foundations as to why I would become an astronomer and why I currently
work in aerospace engineering management (Fig. 1.1). And now here comes this question!
I had, of course, realized that for some time in the media, and especially on
the internet, there was a massive amount of doubt about the authenticity of
the Moon landings. Based on irritating photographs, people claimed that
humans had never actually been to the Moon, and that all of the reports,
films, and results were one enormous trick performed on the entire world. I
was only partially aware of these conspiracies and never really paid any atten-
tion to them.
But then my friends, intelligent people who are able to distinguish between
serious arguments and fantasies, came to me with these questions. They were
unsettled by the vario
us claims from the so-called “Moon landing deniers”
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
1
T. Eversberg, The Moon Hoax? , Science and Fiction,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05460-1_1
2
T. Eversberg
Fig. 1.1 Earthrise. Photo: NASA/E. Cernan. No.: AS17-152-23274
and wondered whether there was anything true with their theories. For exam-
ple, in images of the Moon published by NASA, which are freely available on
the internet, something seems wrong with the shadows. 1 They don’t appear to run parallel to one another, even though the Sun, which should be the only
source of light, is so far away! Caught off guard, I investigated some other
arguments. And indeed, something was wrong in other images as well. They
appeared confusing and seemingly contradictory, and thus, my interest was
aroused.
Generally, I find critical thinkers to be very pleasant, especially those who
question any statement and don’t just blindly accept such assertions as the
1 Comprehensive sources for image and film documents are the NASA History Office (http://history.
nasa.gov) and the Apollo Archive of Kipp Teague (http://www.apolloarchive.com).
1 Prologue: The Conspiracy of the Faked Moon Landings
3
truth. Because of that, and because I like to get to the bottom of things that
are unclear to me, I was no longer able to ignore the claims from conspiracy
theorists. Without addressing these assertions, I would not have been true to
myself or to my skeptical friends, even more so since I am an analytical person
who has enjoyed an extensive education in the natural sciences. In order to
view the Moon landings from the proper perspective, we need to take into
account their enormity and audacity. Humans actively worked towards leav-
ing their home planet, an unprecedented endeavor symbolizing a break in
human history; an event of the century. This was even more true because of
the considerable risks taken by the astronauts during this project. Humans
had first discovered how to use flying machines just 50 years earlier, and rocket technology was not even 20 years old when the Americans decided to fly to
the Moon. And because some of the necessary technology for their mission
didn’t even exist, the idea of making this spectacular leap a reality in only ten years was simply unimaginable. Yes, it was absurd! Was everything just a lie