The Conspiracy
Introduced to the Landing
What if the thought of an astronaut being on the moon was nothing more than a masterpiece of Hollywood cinema in an attempt to convince the world the space race was over? The conspiracy theory that we have never been to the moon is becoming increasingly popular, but also more and more believable. As more information comes out, it makes you wonder, did we go to the moon? Going to the moon has been something that's been talked about for decades. The whole country saw as Neil Armstrong, an American hero, planted the flag and called our president to let him know we had made it to the moon. Is this all true though? Is Neil Armstrong the person we believe him to be? Did we really go to the moon?
Hi, my name is Neil
What does it mean to be a hero? Being a hero is much more than just doing something that many would consider “heroic”. It’s how you carry yourself, how you live your life, and how you use character traits to take on new tasks. Nobody demonstrated that better than Neil Armstrong. Neil displayed courage, humbleness, and bravery. These traits helped make his trip to the moon possible.
Armstrong's first attempt to the moon was in 1966, he was on the Gemini 8 mission, which was almost a catastrophe. Although he was still able to bring the spacecraft down safely after a thruster rocket error caused it to lose control, ("The lesson of Neil” 1) Neil didn’t allow this failure to deter him from his end goal of reaching the moon. In July 1969 “Armstrong and fellow astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins blasted off in Apollo 11 on a nearly 250,000-mile journey which took four days to reach the moon”. Neil’s journey was everything but smooth, but this just adds to his courageousness. He has a willingness to never give up and strive for his end goal. Neil shows us this when “[he] put himself in harm's way to move himself forward personally and advance humanity” (Allison 1). Aside from just going to the moon, the risk he was taking was extraordinary, risking his life for advancement of the world.
Although Neil Armstrong is one of the most famous people of the last half century, he always stayed humble. He kept his opinions to himself. He never once allowed fame and status to get to him and affect the way he looked at other people in his day to day life. Scott T. Allison, an author on Heroism and leadership from the university of Richmond, says, “Like many great heroes, Armstrong was humble, always downplaying his accomplishments”. That's what truly makes him a hero. “Armstrong spent his retirement giving back to society. During the 1970s, he taught aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati, sharing his life experiences with young people and inspiring them to succeed in life” (Allison 1). Neil was always giving back never being satisfied with what he had done for his community.
Neil was only as good as a man as he was courageous because without that he never would have gone to the moon, but what made him a great man was to do that and still stay humble through all of it. His courage allowed him to fail and continue on as if it never happened. As Rocky Balboa said “Life ain't about how hard you can hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward”. This quote perfectly describes Neils journey to the moon. So after thick and thin of trying to get to space, after everything he went through, he still stayed humble.
Up, Up and Away!
The Truth
The US flag flies in the wind as the United States of America is the first country to step foot on the moon. We would all like to think about how it went but, unfortunately, that isn’t the reality. In pictures shown from the moon, the flag is shown flying in the air which is impossible as space is known as a vacuum that does not contain Oxygen (Feehly 2). While space does have wind, it is only charged particles and energy, which is a factor in “space weather” (“What is Space” 1) . Space weather can not be felt, since there is no oxygen in space. According to Ken Crosswell, this was proved to us in 1998 when NASA launched a satellite that was supposed to find molecular oxygen and never did . Due to the fact the satellite could have been faulty, NASA decided to point it toward Earth, where to no surprise it found tons of molecular oxygen (1). If there is no oxygen, and the space wind is only charged particles, there is no direct way to feel the wind. This makes it impossible for the flag to be moving. NASA has attempted to debunk this theory when they said the reason the flag appeared to be “flying” is because they specially designed a flag with a pole going through the top of the flag keeping it held up (Platoff 1). That might explain why the flag was so upright, but it doesn’t describe why the flag has wrinkles in it as if something is blowing it. If what they said was true, the flag would have laid flat with the pole holding it up. With no oxygen in the air and only charged particles, it’s puzzling why the flag looks to be flying. NASA’s explanation of there being a pole in the flag still doesn’t explain why the flag has wrinkles, which leaves us to believe something else was at play in this whole scenario.
The historic call made to the White House from the moon, is that even possible? Calling from the moon sounds out of this world, literally. Unfortunately, it’s not possible, though. The famous call to the White House took place on July 20, 1969, and was made using very high-frequency (VHF) radio waves where the signals would have had to travel from the moon to the white house. This distance between Earth and the moon is roughly 238,855 (miles), and according to NASA, a high-frequency radio signal can only travel anywhere from 500 to 1000 km which is about 310 to 621 miles (Platoff 1). This puts the distance the waves would need to travel from Earth to the moon short by 238,234 miles. After looking at the numbers it is borderline impossible for us to have called the white house from the Moon. How can such a small yet obvious thing get past so many people? It’s simple; nobody looks into it; everyone trusts what they hear. Unfortunately, that is not reality though.
Watching the flag wave as we call our president from the moon is a dream that could be true. Although, the more and more we dig into it, the more evident it becomes that maybe it wasn’t all true. Although Neil Armstrong was an American hero, that doesn’t mean we can believe what he says. After we look into the research more it shows us that maybe it was all a lie. With there being no oxygen in space, meaning it’s only charged particles causing wind, there is no direct way to feel the wind in space. Now how does a flag blow in the wind if there is none and only an attached pole holding it up? Well it just isn’t possible, there is no explanation for a flag to have wrinkles and appear to be flying without it being staged. Even if there was a way the flag was blowing, what did we use to make a call from the moon? With the use of radio waves to make the call, the waves can simply not travel far enough to transmit a signal at that time. These facts help show us that going to the moon sounds exciting but is far from the truth of what happened.