The conspiracy theory of the lunar hoax...
Did humans ever go to the Moon? "No!" Reply the deniers. According to this thesis, the Apollo missions were a colossal staged hoax because the NASA of the time supposedly did not have the technology needed for such an undertaking. Driven by the need to beat the Soviets in the "space race" and to assert American technological supremacy over the USSR, the United States government, together with NASA, allegedly devised the greatest hoax of the 20th century. Everything would have been simulated in secret bases (such as the famous Area 51), turning what was meant to be humanity's most dangerous and exhilarating adventure into a film set. Conspiracy theorists often cite, as if it were a documentary, the 1978 film Capricorn One, whose plot revolves around the faking of a human landing on Mars. In my opinion, however, they would do well to watch it again more carefully: it is one thing to enjoy a film and draw the right conclusions from it, quite another to interpret it in a distorted way. Why do I say this? Simply because the message of Capricorn One is crystal clear and runs exactly counter to the conspiracy theses: a hoax of such proportions cannot be kept secret forever. The truth behind the deception would inevitably come out, forcing its way through at all costs until it reached the public. That is precisely why the Apollo program demonstrates its complete authenticity. More than fifty years after the first landing, no "alternative truth" (beyond the easily refuted theories we are examining) has ever emerged from the thousands of people involved in the project, not even on their deathbeds, when they had nothing left to lose! To think that tens of thousands of scientists (some 400,000 people across the country worked on the Apollo program), technicians and engineers kept the secret for decades without a single slip is statistically impossible. Using Capricorn One as an example to bolster the conspiracy theses paradoxically ends up refuting them: the film teaches us that secrets that are too big are bound to collapse under their own weight, much sooner than one might imagine!
The theories put forward by Apollo deniers never rest on verifiable scientific data. On the contrary, conspiracy theorists tend to shun the scientific method, peddling dogmas without any reservation and without ever citing authoritative sources. The only references they provide are often links to amateur websites, written by fellow believers, which merely recycle arguments that are worn out and have long been refuted by the international scientific community. All this suggests a deep underlying bad faith: the aim of conspiracy activity is not at all to provide "alternative information" or to expose those in power with the rigor of investigative journalism. On the contrary, the birth of a conspiracy theory is almost always tied to a quest for visibility. There is a desire to set oneself up as a "guru of doubt", gathering fans and seeking the attention of local media and TV, always hungry for easy ratings and sensationalist content. But above all, behind these theories lies a lucrative economic interest. Behind every great conspiracy theory there is a book to promote, a video collection to sell or a social media channel to monetize; perfect tools for instilling in the masses that hunger for "mystery at all costs", even where there is nothing mysterious at all, a typical New Age phenomenon of a modern society that is often adrift, bored and dangerously receptive to this kind of story. Just turn on the TV or browse the web to see it: the offer is enormous! And it is precisely through the internet that Moon-hoax theorists have built their business, passing off as irrefutable proof what are merely distorted interpretations of reality. The points on which their theses rest are the cornerstones of a house of cards whose complete technical and logical inconsistency we will demonstrate, point by point:
- In all the photos taken by the astronauts on the Moon, there is no trace of stars in the sky...
- All the photos taken on the Moon have converging shadows! How is that possible?
- The shadowed areas in the photos are not completely black! How is that possible?
- In all the photos taken on the lunar surface, the horizon looks too close to be real...
- In an Apollo 11 photo the flag appears to have no shadow. And in the films it seems to wave. How is that possible if there is no air on the Moon?
- There is no landing crater under the LEM's descent engine. How is that possible?
- There are many anomalies in the video showing the Apollo 17 LEM lifting off from the lunar surface...
- On the Moon there are temperatures and radiation levels that are lethal to humans...
- Most of the Apollo photos show obvious retouching...
- The lunar missions were too perfect to be true...
- Astronomers never point their powerful telescopes at the Moon. Perhaps to avoid discovering the truth, because they are in league with NASA?
Let us now analyze them point by point...
