Summary/Key Points in McGowan’s Moon Landing Hoax Pieces

This is not as fun to read as the real thing, but hopefully useful if you want to get an overview or look at a specific section.

Part 1-- :
1) we did it 40 years ago with relatively crude technology, but haven’t done it since; neither has any other country; arguments that there is no reason to go back or that it is too expensive don’t really hold up
2) we send astronauts up in the space shuttle regularly but still no one has gone further than low earth orbit
3) NASA has “lost” all of the original moon landing recordings – a huge amount of material
4) near-perfect moon-to-earth transmissions very unlikely given technology of ‘60s
5) NASA transmissions weren’t really “live” but taped off a NASA monitor
6) In moon footage, astronauts really just look they are moving awkwardly on earth at half normal speed
7) Astronauts never do anything particularly impressive in terms of jumps, as they should have been capable of
8) Wouldn’t astronauts move QUICKER on the moon, in lower gravity and no air resistance?
9) Also missing from the Moon missions was recordings with voice data, biomedical monitoring data, and telemetry data to monitor the location and mechanical functioning of the spaceship. All of that data, the entire alleged record of the Moon landings, was on the 13,000+ reels that are said to be ‘missing.’ Also missing, according to NASA and its various subcontractors, are the original plans/blueprints for the lunar modules. And for the lunar rovers. And for the entire multi-sectioned Saturn V rockets.

Part 2--
1) moon rocks could have been easily obtained from Antartica; von Braun went on mysterious mission to expedition to Antartica during developmental stage of Apollo missions
2) at least one official moon rock was a fraud
3) many other official moon rocks have disappeared
4) why it is that in the 1960s we possessed the advanced technology required to actually land men on the Moon, but in the 21st century we don’t even have the technology required to get an unmanned craft close enough to the Moon to take usable photographs? Or could it be that there’s just nothing there to photograph?
5) LROC photos supposedly showing Apollo lander are not convincing and are essentially worthless
6) why it is then that just about everyone seems to want to send unmanned probes there, or to train enormously powerful telescopes on the Moon’s surface? What could they possibly learn about the “parking lot” from those distances that our astronauts didn’t already discover by actually being there?
7) “Laser targets” on moon could easily have been placed there by unmanned probes, or lasers just bounced off moon rock
8) the lunar modules look cheesy and poorly constructed
9) the lunar modules are small and do not seem to have enough space for everything they would need
10) very hard to believe the moon buggy actually fit in there a for the later mission
11) the lunar module on display in the museum has miniature astronauts
12) the landing of the lunar module was never tested in proper conditions except officially on the actual mission—and landing would be extremely tricky with the setup they had
13) On Earth, it took many long years of trial and error, many failed test flights, many unfortunate accidents, and many, many trips back to the drawing board before we could safely and reliably launch men into low-Earth orbit. But on the Moon we did it perfectly the first time.
14) Today, we can’t even launch a space shuttle from right here on planet Earth without occasionally blowing one up, even though sending spacecraft into low-Earth orbit is considerably easier than sending spacecraft all the way to the Moon and back. It would appear then that we can draw the following conclusion: although technology has advanced immeasurably since the first Apollo Moon landing and we have significantly downgraded our goals in space, we can’t come close to matching the amazing safety record we had in the Apollo days.
15) Apollo spacecraft, which officially performed flawlessly, with the exception of Apollo 13, were produced at a surprisingly fast rate in the 60’s

Part 3--
1) 1969 was a strange time in the US; lots of turmoil and upheaval in popular culture
2) lots of people actually doubted the moon landings at the time
3) Nixon had an obvious reason for the show—distraction from the awful Vietnam war, and it needed to work successfully
4) various terrible news events (mostly relating to the war) and the Apollo trips dovetailed
5) Radiation exposure in space a major problem--- NASA says it is a big problem now. The Apollo ships simply didn’t have proper radiation protection.
6) Astronauts haven’t gotten cancer from all the radiation they should have been exposed to

Part 4—
1) the photos were taken from a very odd and cumbersome system—chest mounted cameras-- that didn’t allow exposure setting, focusing or framing; hard to believe the amazing and perfect shots taken could have been taken with this system
2) The odds then of getting exposure, focus and framing correct under these conditions on any given shot would have been exceedingly low. And yet, amazingly enough, on the overwhelming majority of the photos, they got all three right.
3) Debunker explanations of how the photography was done are flawed—in terms of depth of field, and use of a 500mm lens.
4) Film would have been ruined by the radiation on the moon
5) Stars should have come out in at least some of the photos, and why didn’t one astronaut bother to TRY to take pics of the stars?
6) Shadows may show different light sources: http://davesweb.cnchost.com/AS11-40-5925HR.jpg
7) Too much light on the astronaut here: http://davesweb.cnchost.com/AS11-40-5869HR.jpg and http://davesweb.cnchost.com/AS11-40-5903HR.jpg; this photo shows how the shadows should have looked: http://davesweb.cnchost.com/NASA_Apollo_17_Lunar_Roving_Vehicle.jpg
8) “If the camera is stopped down to avoid overexposing extremely bright highlights, it cannot simultaneously capture full detail in the shadows. And if the aperture and shutter speeds are set to capture detail in the shadows, the camera would necessarily also capture the brilliant stars, which would be far brighter than anything lying in the lunar shadows. Other planets would be pretty hard to miss in the lunar sky as well, though none can be seen in any of NASA’s photos.”
9) Obvious photo compositing here: http://davesweb.cnchost.com/Apollo_CSM_lunar_orbit.jpg

Part 5--
1) http://davesweb.cnchost.com/AS11-40-5864HR.jpg -- the soil under the LEM is completely undisturbed. “Not only is there no crater, there is no sign of scorching and none of the small ‘Moon rocks’ and not a speck of ‘lunar soil’ has been displaced! And if you refer back to the earlier close-up of the module’s landing pod, you will see that not so much as a single grain of ‘lunar soil’ settled onto the lunar modules while they were setting down. http://davesweb.cnchost.com/AS11-40-5925HR.jpg
2) Not at all clear how the spacesuits protected the astronauts from temperatures ranging from -260F to +280F.
3) None of the pictures of the spacesuits shows them strongly pressurized, which would have been required.
4) Micrometeorites a real problem on the moon, and could have easily killed an astronaut.
5) President George W. Bush announced on January 14, 2004 that America was going to be returning to the Moon, and we were told by NASA types and various television talking heads that such a goal would require about fifteen years to achieve. No one in the media thought to ask why it would take fifteen years to do with twenty-first century technology what it took only eight years to accomplish with 1960s technology. Not one voice was raised to ask how with the twin advantages of improved technology and prior experience it would still take twice as long this time around.
6) NASA footage of the blastoff from the lunar surface is fraudulent, due to the ability of the moon-based camera to pan and tilt up to track the rising ship (there should have been a delay even if there was a remote control for this)
7) “Astronaut Steve Lindsey, after being chosen to command the final planned mission of the space shuttle, had this to say: “Everybody at NASA feels the same way. We’re in favor of taking the next step and getting out of low-Earth orbit.” So while technology in every other realm of human existence continues to take giant strides forward, everyone at NASA appears to want to take a big step backwards. To 1969.”

Part 6--
1) LCROSS bombing of the moon apparently a disappointment
2) The mission to find water kind of pointless given no current plans to go to moon

Part 7--
1) when JFK said the US would go to the moon by the end of the decade, US had extremely minimal experience with spaceflight
2) Soviets beat the US in a huge number of space milestones
3) “of course, it makes perfect sense that America’s first true spacecraft, coming as it did during the infancy of the Space Age, would also stand to this day as the most complicated and sophisticated spacecraft “ever conceived.” After all, didn’t Henry Ford build the most complicated and sophisticated automobile ever conceived? And didn’t Orville and Wilbur build the most complicated and sophisticated aircraft ever conceived? And didn’t Alexander Graham Bell invent the IPhone?”
4) conceptually, the LEM was supposed to be extremely clean, any dust or debris could be a hazard. Not clear how they planned to keep the LEM clean once it was on the moon and astronauts were walking in and out.

Part 8--
1) for “future” trips to the moon, NASA has taken extra precautions for moon dust contamination in the LEM and for guarding against radiation. Why wasn’t this a concern or a major problem in 1969?
2) The LEM used the first throttle-controlled rocket engine ever to land on the moon, and of course, no one was able to land it properly on the earth, in tests
3) The LEM ascent engine was never tested in its final form
4) Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas was a movie set of sorts: on television it looked pretty damned impressive, for the era at least-- an enormous room filled with computer consoles, each staffed by a key member of the Apollo team diligently monitoring his computer screen for any signs of trouble. In reality, as Apollo 11 computer engineer Jack Garman clues us in, “the computer screens that we looked at in Mission Control weren’t computer screens at all. They were televisions. All the letters, or characters, [they] were all hand drawn. I don’t necessarily mean with a brush, but I mean they were painted on a slide.”
5) “The skin on the crew cabin [of the lunar module] was very thin, and that was all done because of weight savings.” … “If you really took your finger and poked hard at it, you could poke right through the outer skin of the spacecraft. It was about the thickness of two layers of aluminum foil.” Project Manager Thomas Kelly concurred, noting that “the skin, the aluminum alloy skin of the crew compartment was about 12/1000s of an inch thick. That’s equivalent to about three layers of Reynold’s Wrap that you would use in the kitchen.”” Not clear how this thing was pressurized then.
6) Official story has fragile lunar modules exposed “to the hazards of a lengthy space flight” also involves a docking maneuver in outer space, of unclear procedure at thousands of miles per hour, something that never could have been practiced ahead of time.

Part 9--
1) “Mythbusters” debunking of the hoax is bogus
2) Apollo astronauts never perform any seriously high jumps, even though this can be done easily in free-fall machines
3) Not clear how NASA designed Apollo space suits as early designs were not good and easily overheated in Florida sun
4) “Gemini astronaut Ed White allegedly became the first American to perform a space-walk, despite the fact that NASA did not yet appear to have a suit that would allow for such a maneuver. Nevertheless, on June 3, 1965, White allegedly performed a successful 22-minute EVA (extra-vehicular activity, in NASA jargon) which was yet another “We can do it too!” response to the Soviet Union’s first space-walk.” His walk was likely a fake.
5) After White, 3 astronauts in a row failed to do a spacewalk
6) “The Apollo spacesuits supposedly weighed in at 180 pounds each, including the PLSS backpacks. You would think that with the advanced technology now available, NASA would have been able to streamline the package. To the contrary, the suits now worn aboard the space shuttle weigh in at 310 pounds each. And ILC claims that it takes three months and 5,000 man-hours to produce each one. Back in the ‘60s, they claimed to be cranking out a minimum of nine of them for each Apollo flight.”
7) There are flaws in the official Apollo 13 story, involving the temperature, water condensation and food supplies

Part 10--
1) “Apollo 8 was only the third launch of a Saturn V rocket, and the first to carry a crew. The first two Saturn V launches, Apollo 4 and Apollo 6, were what NASA referred to as “all-up” tests of the three-stage launch vehicle. Those tests didn’t go so well.”… “Without taking any of the preliminary steps, and with a launch vehicle that had failed on its last outing, and without knowing if the ship itself could make the journey there and back, America was going to send men all the way to the Moon!”
2) Before Apollo, NASA didn’t have such a good record for spaceflight
3) The unmanned Lunar Orbiter program officially sent back relatively few pictures from the moon, may have set up shots for the faked Apollo program
4) “One final note on the Lunar Orbiters: during their flights to and around the Moon, the five satellites recorded twenty-two “micrometeoroid events.” The eight lunar modules that made the trip to the Moon apparently recorded no such events. Or maybe the guys just put some duct tape over the holes.”
5) Previous tests with docking a spacecraft to another spacecraft were not very successful.
6) Probe-and-drogue mechanism used to dock CM and LEM. Not clear how, with the probe-and-drogue assembly having been removed, the LEM was able to dock with the command module the second time, upon its return from the lunar surface.

Part 11--
1) “The very first Moonwalk by Neil and Buzz was broadcast (‘live’ of course) at 9:00 PM Eastern time, as though it were a Monday Night Football game. Prime time Moonwalks became a staple of the Apollo program, to such an extent that it was not at all uncommon for the networks to be deluged with complaints when a popular weekly sitcom was preempted for yet another fake ‘live’ Moonwalk. After the second fake Moon landing, NASA began adding exciting new elements to the Apollo missions to combat public apathy. Apollo 13, of course, added the element of danger. Apollo 14 brought us the Moon in Technicolor, with the first color video broadcasts. Apollo 15 kept us entertained with the addition of a Moon buggy. And Apollo 17 featured the first, and only, spectacular night launch of a Saturn V rocket.”
2) “Despite all the acclaim he has received for his exploits as an astronaut, Neil Armstrong clearly has been unjustly denied recognition of his astounding abilities as a photographer. Some may argue that he clearly was not playing in the same league as, say, an Ansel Adams, but I beg to differ. Adams created some awe-inspiring work, to be sure, but could he have done so while wearing a spacesuit, gloves and helmet, and with his camera mounted to his chest, and while acclimating himself to an environment that featured no air, greatly reduced gravity, and extreme heat and cold?”
3) The fold-up Rover buggy “seems to be missing such things as a floor pan, and seats, and cameras, and antennae, and battery packs, and various other components – which raises a few questions, such as where were all the other rover parts stowed? How many empty equipment bays were available to accommodate all the various rover components? And how long exactly did it take the astronauts, given the limitations imposed by their suits and gloves, to deploy and fully assemble a Moon buggy?”

Part 12--
1) The now-canceled Constellation Program to go “back to” the moon was begun in 2005, and at the end, aimed for men on the moon by 2028. The Apollo program allegedly landed men on the Moon in a mere eight years. It shouldn’t take almost three times as long to get back to the Moon with today’s technology as it did in the 60’s!
2) “In May of 1966, after spending five years working on the Apollo project, we were just a-year-and-a-half away from the launch of the first Saturn V. In 2010, after spending five years working on the Constellation project, NASA has nothing to present to us but a hefty bill”
3) “If NASA returns to the moon in 2020 as planned, astronauts will step out in a brand-new space suit. It will give them new mobility and flexibility on the lunar surface while still protecting them from its harsh environment … The space agency has awarded a $500 million, 6.5-year contract for the design and development of the Constellation space suit.” Astronauts performing EVAs these days currently use something known as the Extravehicular Mobility Unit: “It has a hard upper torso, layers of material to protect astronauts from micrometeoroids and radiation, a temperature-regulation system, and its own life support and communication system. The EMU weighs over 300 pounds and has limited leg mobility – astronauts feet are normally locked in place on foot restraints while performing extravehicular tasks, and during Apollo missions, which used a different EMU suit, astronauts were forced to develop a bunny hop to traverse the lunar surface.” It is absurd that is takes about four times as long to develop a spacesuit now than it did back in the 1960s.
4) Wernher von Braunn, one of NASA’s chief rocket scientists, was a real Nazi
5) Nazi connection to MIT where idea of Apollo missions was developed
6) Computer programming for Apollo was critical for the mission but poorly specified according to one of the computer engineers. “Despite the overwhelming obstacles faced by the MIT team, and the seemingly lackadaisical approach taken with the project, the Apollo guidance system, as would be expected, performed nearly flawlessly on every outing.”