The Reality of the Moon Landing

During the 1960s, the Cold War and the Vietnam War were in full swing, and tensions grew internationally and nationally. People began to lose trust in the moral and ethical behavior of the government. One example of this distrust occurred following a major historical event around the same time period. With millions of people watching, a United States astronaut was televised setting foot on the moon for the first time.Some skeptics thought that the moon landing was fabricated by the U. S.’s desire to beat the Soviet Union in the Space Race; however, the points made by these conspiracy theorists are mere speculation, lack solid evidence and leave more questions than answers. For example, lying about the authenticity of the landing came with too much of a risk of getting caught by other countries. Those who claim the landing never happened also stated that the moon landing was filmed on a movie set, but they do not consider that the special effects needed to create such a realist ic scene were not yet developed thoroughly enough at that time.If the moon landing was a falsehood, the lie would be an immense secret kept with great difficulty, considering the thousands of people who would be involved in the hoax. This paper will prove that the moon landing did occur, and will also disprove the opposing side. There was not enough motivation for the U. S government to stage the landing on the moon because that lie would encompass too much of a risk and likelihood of getting caught by the world. Although President Kennedy was under a lot of pressure to compete and excel in the â€Å"Space Race† with the Soviet Union, that competition only served to motivate success.American pride and support for the U. S. space program was strong and would be even further bolstered if the U. S. would be able to beat the Soviets to the moon. According to the article â€Å"The Decision to Go to the Moon,† by Steve Graber, he states that â€Å"The decision involved much consideration before making it public, as well as enormous human efforts and expenditures to make what became Project Apollo a reality by 1969. † Clearly the decision to formally challenge NASA and the world with this undertaking was not made lightly.Kennedy, at this point, was quite determined to prove that the U.S. did in fact possess the technology and the ability to lead the world into space. President Kennedy, along with NASA, was determined to get a man to the moon, and he brought the American people together and united them under the common goal of beating their enemy by the end of the decade. Enormous efforts were underway as NASA and the government began constructing their plans. The success in putting a man on the moon gave the U. S. tremendous advances in technology, scientific knowledge, and improved economic and political advantages from the use of satellites.Thus, by analyzing the motives to either fake the landing or to actually pull the landing off, the obviou s answer was that there was little incentive to fake the landing and tremendous benefits to actually landing a man on the moon. The U. S. government obtained enough motivation to complete the goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade because they would gain significant benefits and not because they desperately wanted to beat the Soviets; they also had no need to worry about the risk of getting caught since there was no need to to lie, therefore, the U. S. did land on the moon.Some conspiracy theorists believe that the moon landing was faked because motivation to â€Å"beat† the Soviets to the moon was too strong to delay; however the government realized the other motivations besides beating the Soviets, so the moon landing did occur. Both the U. S. and Russia were watching each other extremely closely, waiting for the other to slip. In his article â€Å"Did NASA Fake the Moon Landing,† Ray Villard states that a group of citizens made a claim that †Å"The United States needed to cement its world leadership during the Cold War by pretending to pull off what really was a technologically impossible stunt.†But, the U. S. at this time did possess the correct technology and landing on the moon was not impossible because of the efforts put in by the technicians and scientists to create the necessary machinery. The U. S. also wanted to make their world leadership stronger, but they could not lie to achieve that goal because the Soviets were watching the U. S. and their every move during this time. If the Soviets were to find out the landing was a lie or was staged then they would easily expose the U. S. to the world.But, the Soviets did not deny the landing and accepted the fact the U. S.  landed on the moon first knowing we did actually possess the technology to go to space. This fact alone provides evidence that the government did not stage the moon landing. Even though the U. S. government did desperately want to beat the So viet Union there was no reason to lie because the U. S. knew they possessed the power and the technology to reach their goal. The government also knew that landing on the moon would bring more benefits to them, such as the advancement in science and a broader understanding of space, which would ultimately encourage them to not lie and follow through with their goal to get a man to the moon.With the support and the money from congress and the backing of the citizens, the U. S. acquired a strong determination to get to the moon first. Even though the theorists claim the motivation was wrong to land on the moon and that the government lied to the world, there is too much evidence in support of the moon landing because we did hold the advanced technology and the correct motivation; therefore the moon landing was not faked and did happen.The special effects at this time were not developed enough to stage a realistic moon landing and a film directed on Earth would not be able to fool the world, which means there would not be a reasonable way to fake the landing and the moon landing did occur. During the 1960’s the science fiction genre was just emerging and the available special effects technology was not nearly as sophisticated as today. For example, if the moon landing was created using special effects the moon most likely would not look as real as needed and many people would start questioning the reality of the landing.In the article Villard goes on to state that at that time â€Å"No microcomputers, digital-image processing, or 3-D animation software existed. The decade's landmark space film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, illustrates the pinnacle of special-effects capability in the 1960s. † Even the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey included flaws in regards to special effects because of how underdeveloped they were at the time the movie was made. The claim is that the same director who filmed the movie was also asked to stage the moon landing.If such were th e case, one would expect that the two films should contain similarities in production value, but the two sets of footage were both quite different from one another. Additional proof that the landing was not filmed is provided in video of the astronauts walking on the moon: the moonwalk is far too complex to be faked with the available special effects. In the videos, the men are almost floating at points- a feat that would be impossible to portray with the pull of gravity on Earth.1960’s America did not possess the movie making capabilities needed to create a believable moon landing on a movie set, leaving one other possibility: we actually did set foot on the moon. There are those that believe the moon landing was filmed in a large Hollywood movie set, however, this cannot be true because the movie technology was not capable of such a task and there are clear counter points for each reason the critics say the landing was filmed, such as why there are no stars; so there are st rong facts that the landing did happen.The critics claim with confidence that the scientific technology was not there to send a man to the moon but they fail to acknowledge the fact that we actually did not hold the technology to produce a realistic film of the landing. The fact of the matter was that because of the advances of top end scientists, engineers, test pilots, medical researchers, from across the country and the test flights that orbited the Earth, we were able to get a man to walk on the moon for the first time.But, despite this knowledge, according to an article from International Business Times the author states â€Å"Some theorists allege that NASA officials approached Kubrick sometime in early 1968 and asked him to film ‘footage’ depicting an earth ship landing on the moon and a space traveler walking on the lunar surface. † While the claim is a strong idea, the government would not lie about the landing because they knew the many benefits that wo uld come their way if they were able to land on the moon.The knowledge of what the country would gain pushed them even further to reaching their goal, as they eventually did. Theorists also say that since there was no stars in the photographs brought back, that proves Kubrick filmed the landing because there are billions of stars in space, yet not one star was in the photographs. But the landing took place during the lunar morning with the sun shining too brightly. Similar to the fact that we cannot see the stars from earth during the day, they cannot be seen while in space either: they are too bright to be captured in a picture.So the fact that there were not any stars actually helps prove the moon landing was not filmed because that gives more reality to the pictures if thought about from a scientific perspective. Even though the critics accumulated possible theories as to why they believe the landing was filmed, each can be refuted with scientific explanations, such as why there were no stars or why the flag was moving, and prove that Apollo 11 did land on the moon.If the moon landing never happened and the world was lied to, such a secret would be almost impossible to keep for this long, and therefore gives proof  that the moon landing occurred. Thousands of people would be needed to work on the staging- everyone from makeup artists to the director, and to this day not a single person ever come forward claiming the landing was a hoax or even hinted at the possibility. There were also thousands who were a part of the actual moon landing. In an article from Balance-Today. org the author states, â€Å"Including the astronauts, scientists, engineers and technicians, more than 400,00 skilled workers contributed to the Apollo project. To date, not one of them even hinted that the landings were faked.†Again, there was no hinting or an accidental slip that we never actually succeeded in landing on the moon and all of these people who were a part of the â €Å"staged† event would gain a lot of fame if they came forward with their story. The Soviet Union would also never keep the secret if they found out. The Soviets were looking for ways to hurt the U. S. and they would not think twice before exposing us to the world if they found out the U. S. government lied. Given human nature and the drive for power, fame, money and glory, it is simply unreasonable to believe a secret this immense could be kept for this long.Considering the fact that nobody came forward and confessed that the moon landing was a lie, then one can conclude the U. S. made the first man walk on the moon. Some say that the reason nobody confessed the landing was faked, was because the government threatened and murdered people who would potentially leak the secret; however the theory of the killings cannot be true because there were too many people involved, and since nobody hinted that the landing was a lie the landing did actually occur.The theory of the govern ment’s â€Å"murders† is farfetched because of the fact that there were thousands who would know and would be involved in the process of not only the actual moon landing, but a â€Å"staged† occurrence as well. In the article Villard states that conspiracy theorists believe that â€Å"The government scared and murdered potential tattletales, including its own astronaut heroes in a reprehensible assertion that the tragic 1967 Apollo 1 fire was rigged. † However, despite the existence of treacherous and devious governments, the democracy of the United States would never allow the government to carry out such an atrocity.As was becoming more and more the norm, the citizens would ask questions, and the media, along with other countries would also become involved. Also, even though the theorists say the government caused the Apollo 1 tragedy, that theory was proven wrong. After a thorough investigation the tragedy was determined to be caused by a spark from a short circuit in a bundle of wires, quickly causing the fire to spread through the flammable materials. The impossibility was too big for everyone to believe the government could silence or murder anyone involved.There were too many people and too many benefits for a person who could claim they worked on the greatest hoax ever. Even though the theorists tried to come up with an explanation for why nobody confessed, the idea that the government killed everyone is impossible because the murders would be too obvious, which means there was no secret that needed to be kept and no need to kill people who knew, so the moon landing was real. In conclusion, there is too much concrete evidence and reasoning for the moon landing to be faked. The U. S.retained the correct motivation to get to the moon first before the Soviet Union because of the benefits that would come to them such as what the satellites could offer and the scientific discoveries they found. Pulling off the lie would help the country’s growing status in the world but they would not gain much more than that besides being able to say they finally beat the Soviets in the Space Race. The moon landing being filmed on a movie set is not possible either because of the lack of the special effects technology during this time.Nothing made on Earth would look real enough to be presented to the world, especially the realistic moonwalk since there is no way to float on Earth. Unlike what the theorists claim, we did possess the scientific technology to go to space and land on the moon because NASA and the government brought in the top end scientists and engineers to accomplish the task some say was impossible. The secret, if the moon landing was faked, became to enormous to keep and the government could not murder every person without the killings resembling genocide.Since nobody ever came forward with a confession there is nobody to prove the moon landing was staged. As a result, the theories that accumulated after the moon landing cannot be possible because of the scientific evidence and the fact that there were multiple moon landings closely following the first Apollo mission which means we did possess the technology; therefore the U. S. government did not lie and the country did land the first man on the moon.