De-hoaxing the Moon Landings

Imagine a morning bus commute to your amazing job at a planetarium.  At the stop where most tourists board, a father and two small children (maybe 6 and 7 years old) climb onboard.  They sit across from you, and the kids exclaim excitedly as the bus pulls away from the stop.  The father however, notices you.  Eventually he leans over and says, “Excuse me, do you work at the planetarium?”  

You have only a moment to remember that you shouldn’t wear your work lanyard in public, before you smile brightly and say, “I certainly do!”

The father smiles as well and says to his family, “Hey kids, this person works at the planetarium! That’s a museum where they have a bunch of information about space, planets, and stars.”

He turns to you and continues, “They’ve been learning a lot about the Moon.  Hey kids, share what you learned about the Moon!”

The kids look visibly displeased they have to perform for a stranger, but the oldest looks at you and says, “The Moon landing was a fake – people say we landed there, but it isn’t true.”

The father, beaming with pride, says, “Yup, that’s absolutely right!”

Several years ago, this exact situation happened to me.  I was incensed this parent spat in the face of his social responsibility to reinforce critical thinking to his kids.  I was sad these kids would grow up with at least one parent who thought so little about the society they lived in.  I was utterly paralized to do or say anything more than, “Ohhh interesting…” because I wore the planetarium’s badge openly, and was being seen as their representative.

It may not come as a shock to hear that Moon Landing Hoax declarations from guests happen occasionally at the planetarium.  I found they base their opinions on three phenomena observed in videos and images captured during the Apollo missions.

Flapping in the Wind

Theorists say the flag planted into the Moon’s surface by the astronauts continued to “flap in the wind”, which becomes obvious when speeding up the film. They say that since space has no air, there’d be no wind on the Moon, which means the flag’s continued movement could only be explained by the whole event really taking place on a movie set.

It’s true – there is no air in space, and no wind on the Moon.  Unfortunately, the rest of this argument simply… lacks lift. The absence of air on the Moon means that very little in the lunar environment acts as a source of friction for dampening.  Without the motion-dampening tendencies of air, the flag can’t easily stop responding to the vibrations from the lunar surface, or even the left-over vibrations in the pole from when the astronauts pounded it into the ground (figure 1). I would know the Moon landing was a hoax if the videos showed the flag’s movement coming to rest after only a few seconds.

One Small Step…

It turns out the pristine bootprints created by astronauts on the lunar surface strain credibility for some people.  According to these theorists, the sides of the bootprints would collapse slightly when the astronauts lifted their feet.

The truth is, the tendency for material to hold a bootprint relates much more to what the material is composed of, than where it is.  A material’s water content, particle size, electrostatic characteristics, and the local strength of gravity all affect how well it holds an imprint.  Materials like flour or wet sand preserve bootprints quite well, whereas materials like sugar or dry sand don’t (figure 2).  Since we had such limited knowledge of the Moon’s surface prior to visiting, we couldn’t guess whether it would preserve an imprint or not.  Considering materials here on Earth can preserve bootprints perfectly, this theory is without structure at all.

Exposing the Flaw

Theorists are most proud to point out the apparently obvious goof that pictures and videos from the lunar surface don’t contain any stars.  After all, with no air on the Moon there’s nothing preventing the astronauts from seeing stars no matter what time it is.

It’s certainly true that the Moon doesn’t have an atmosphere, and that stars are visible at all times from the surface.  However, the reason pictures and videos from the Moon don’t show stars is due entirely to how cameras work.  Film reacts with light to create a reproduction of the scene it’s being shown.  Very bright light, like that reflected by the lunar surface, overexposes film.  So, the camera lens needs to reduce that light to a manageable level.  Once light from the whole scene is reduced, the very dim light from stars is suppressed entirely and doesn’t react with the film (figure 3).  I would think the Moon landing might have been a hoax if the images and videos from the surface actually showed stars (figure 4)!

Moral of the Story

The Moon landing wasn’t a hoax!  Who doesn’t like a good conspiracy theory now and again?  But, perpetuating this distorted form of critical thinking as “real” science, especially to young people, starts them off at a deficit of understanding and inspiration.  Everyone’s much better off if you don’t focus your children’s early education on what can’t be done.  Let them wonder, let them explore, and for the love of God let them be inspired.

Moon Pies.  These delightful confections defined my childhood.  For the unenlightened, Moon Pies are marshmallow cream sandwiched between two cookies, and completely covered in chocolate.  They’re amazing… and NOT pies.  They’re just an alternately assembled S’more.  But, I won’t hold that against them.  A S’more by any other name… Check out this recipe!