About Neil Armstrong and the Moon Landing
On July 30, 1955, the race to the moon began. A tight race between the Soviet Union, and the United States. Neil Armstrong, the lead explorer for the United States, was soon to be the first man on the moon. This event will forever go down in history. The United States would be the first country to land on the moon with Apollo 11, on July 20, 1969 (Loff). At least, that is what people believe, but could the whole thing be fake just to be declared the first? Was the moon landing filmed because they did not want to lose to the Soviet Union? If we did land on the moon, why have we not been back since? Let’s dig a little deeper into the conspiracy theories about Neil Armstrong, the moon landing, and the possibility that Hollywood filmed it all.
Neil Armstrong was a very smart man, who loved any kind of spacecraft. “Armstrong was 6 years old when he first found his love for aircraft. When he got to ride in an airplane for the first time,” (Wild). Armstrong said, “I began to focus on aviation at age eight or nine and was inspired by what I had read about aviation and building model aircraft. Why? I determined at an early age that was the field I wanted to go into, although my intention was to be an aircraft designer. I later went into piloting because I thought a good designer ought to know the operational aspects of an airplane,” (NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project). Neil’s obsession grew as he got his pilot’s license on his sixteenth birthday, before he had his driver’s license. Many people that knew Neil Armstrong described him as a smart, brilliant man. He taught at the University of Cincinnati as a Professor of Aerospace Engineering. Luama Mays, who became friends with Armstrong while he was teaching, says, “He was the smartest engineer he ever knew. That he thrived on the engineering components of air and space travel,” (UC News). Armstrong was also not a self-centered person, even after all his success with NASA, and being the first man on the moon. According to James Hansen, the author of Neil Armstrong’s biography, says “Neil was a very private man, and that he often said no to interviews. What I did learn from my time writing his biography was that there was absolutely nothing in Neil’s personality that really tried to find the limelight,” (Chow). It was never about fame or fortune to him; it was all about flying. After he became the first man on the moon he shortly returned to Ohio, where he was from, and became a professor. He tried to live a low-key life, or as much of a low-key life that the first man on the moon could live. “He had said no to every biographer that asked before me, so I came prepared when I asked. I wanted him to know that I understood his studies, and I was not going to make the biography all about him landing on the moon. When I approached him, I had a body of books and articles that I could show him proving I knew what I was talking about,” said Hansen, (Chow). He never wanted to be famous. He just wanted to explore space, and everything that was in it.
When talking about Neil Armstrong and the Moon landing, conspiracy theories start to arise. There are conspiracies about the Moon landing to review. The first one is how you cannot see the stars. The second theory is how the shadows do not line up correctly. The third one is how the flag is moving on the moon where there is supposed to be no atmosphere. The main conspiracy is if the moon landing is real. The first theory argues that there are no stars seen in any of the photographs so the moon landing must have been filmed indoors; “The sky on the moon is black as night not because it is night, but because there's no atmosphere to scatter the daylight the way ours does on Earth. On Earth the sun does not reflect off very many things. “Sunlight makes the lunar surface incredibly bright as a result, the relatively dim stars in the background didn't register in any of the shots,” (Hammer). The sunlight being so bright and reflecting from the lunar surface made it too bright for the camera to focus on everything. Neil decided to have the camera focus on the moon's surface, rather than the sky.
When talking about the moon’s surface and sunlight brings up another theory. Is that the shadows look unnatural, also suggesting that the moon landing is faked. Most people believe that if the sun is the only light source that you would not be able to see anything that sits in the shadows. People believe that since they can see objects in the shadows it must have been filmed with multiple lighting angles. “Another source is the lunar ground, which reflects the sun’s light. The sunlight is being scattered or reflected off the ground every which way, and some of it scatters into the shadows,” Fienberg says, (Little). According to that statement, since the lunar ground helps illuminate the moon you may be able to see things that sit in the shadows.
The final, most thought of conspiracy about the moon landing is how did the flag wave, if there is no atmosphere on the moon? In photos, it appears that the flag is flapping because of the wrinkles: “They took a special type of flag to the moon, so you would be able to see the flag. These flags had a horizontal rod inside to make them stick out from the flagpole. The Apollo 11 astronauts had trouble extending the rod all the way, and in still pictures, this creates a ripple effect that makes the flag look like it’s waving in the wind,” (Little). So, the flag was in fact not waving, it was an illusion. Neil Armstrong and the moon landing continues to be a touchy subject to many people in the world today. The moon landing remains a question to many, even though there is evidence to prove the moon landing being real. The flag showing signs of movement without having an atmosphere was confusing. Also, no stars being shown in the photographs located on the moon left people suspicious. Regarding an article, it stated cameras cannot capture the stars as the moon's surface is too bright to capture on a daylight camera (Hamer). Also, the shadows on the moon looked unparallel. However, it is just a myth and to prove it several experiments were taken to show the sun makes parallel and unparallel shadows (Little). Much evidence is proven to back up the moon landing being real. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong was considered the first person to walk on the moon. After inspecting Neil Armstrong and the moon landing, several conspiracy theories are left to question:
1. Why was the American flag waving with no atmosphere on the moon?
2. Why were there no stars on the moon in the photographs?
3. Was the placement of the shadows seen on the moon falsified? Even today, fifty-plus years after the moon landing took place back in 1969, the mystery continues to make people question. However, it is likely Neil Armstrong participated in the moon landing, and that the moon landing truly happened that day.
Works Cited
“Neil A. Armstrong Oral History.” NASA, https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/ArmstrongNA/ArmstrongNA_9-19-01.htm
“UC News.” RSS, 7 Nov. 2023, https://magazine.uc.edu/editors_picks/recent_features/armstrong.html#:~:text=The%20intelligent%20scholar%20always%20thrived,He%20was%20a%20pilot's%20pilot.%22
Chow, Denise. “‘first Man’ Writer Tells What Neil Armstrong Was like in Real Life.” https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/first-man-writer-tells-what-neil-armstrong-was-real-life-ncna919741
Loff, Sarah A. “Apollo 11 Mission Overview.” NASA, NASA, 14 July 2023, www.nasa.gov/history/apollo-11-mission-overview/.
Hamer, Ashley. “Why Aren’t There Stars in the Moon Landing Photos?” Discovery, Discovery, 29 July 2019, www.discovery.com/science/apollo-50th-anniversary/why-aren-t-there- stars-in-the-moon-landing-photos-.
Little, Becky. “The Wildest Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories, Debunked.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, 19 June 2019, www.history.com/news/moon-landing-fake- conspiracy-theories.