Saturday evening, during a phone call to say “hello” to my father, we started talking about what was going on in the world during our births. To my father, 61, I said, “When you were born the world was at war. When I was born, we were going to the moon.” Technically, the moon landing happened late in 1969 but when I was born in May of 1968, we were certainly hard at work getting there. The launch pad fire in January 1967 (Apollo 1) that claimed the lives of three American astronauts had prompted a lunar module redesign. There was no manned Apollo mission until October 1968 (Apollo 7). The point is that much work was being done for a manned moon landing at the time of my birth.
At this point in the phone call, my father revealed a belief I never knew he had: that the moon landing was completely faked. We spoke more about it and after I verified he was sober and not trying to merely push my buttons, he told me that his reasoning for this belief was two-fold:
1) Cosmic radiation would be too strong to allow astronauts to survive on the lunar surface
2) why have there been no unmanned lunar missions, especially since there have been so many unmanned missions elsewhere in the solar system?
I was flabbergasted at this revalation that my father was a believer in the Lunar Landing Hoax theory! I really wanted to learn more about this belief of his but I felt compelled to quash these two easily-quashable claims. After making attempts to prove that he was wrong, he made some personal attacks and engaged in some name calling so I hung up on him. I’m not interested in taking that shit from anyone, which is one of the many things he taught me and that should please irony addicts. I’ll be the first to admit that my voice can get a bit strident when faced with such craziness, especially from such a close relative. But you’ll have to believe me when I say this was not the case. Besides the shock at discovering such a weird fact about my father, I was calm. So I felt the personal attack/name calling was out of order.
I’m sure my dear father has reasons in addition to the above for believing the way he does. There are so many Lunar Landing Hoax websites out there that contain “proof” the landings never occured such as 1) photographic anomalies in the shadows on the lunar surface cast by the astronauts, 2) light-source contradictions in numerous photos, 3) the fact that stars can’t be seen in photos taken on the moon, and on and on and on.
I’m not going to refute these silly claims. There is at least one science-based website to refute these claims for every pseudo-science website that makes them. I’d suggest using Google to find them. They are as pervasive as cosmic radiation in space, which brings me to refuting the specific reasoning used by my father. First, I should mention that my father is a retired high school teacher. What did he teach? Earth Science. Figures. Can you appreciate the shock, then?
Here’s the rebuttal my father never heard.
1) Cosmic radiation effect is actually proof we were there. At least 39 astronauts, including the surviving Apollo astronauts, suffer from cataracts caused by cosmic radiation (source). A larger article on the subject can be found here.
2) There have been dozens of unmanned spacecraft sent to the moon before and after the Apollo missions (source 1. source 2).
Yes, I concede these websites are authored by people; people that may or may not have personal agendas. I also concede that point of view is the determining factor in which websites you lend credence to. If you believe the lunar landing never happened, then you’ll believe the hoax websites. If you believe the lunar landing did occur, then you’ll give credence to supportive websites. To my father, whom I love, I’d suggest that he read as much as he can find on this subject. Aside from what I’ve already written above, I shall not try to convince him further. Too many people far more qualified to do so are published in myriad books and magazines.
I suppose it’s similar to faith and religion. You tend to believe what you believe.
Long live the boognish!
