Post on 29-May-2018
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Lunar ConsipiracySkepticism Gone Crazy
Philosophy and Skepticism
BRENT SILBY
Unlimited (UPT)
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Lunar Landing
Skepticism is rational, but only if evidence is taken seriously
Many people are skeptical about the missions to the moon thattook place during the late 1960s and early 1970s
They think these missions were hoaxes
Are they right? What are their reasons for holding this view?
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Lunar Landing
Lets look at their reasons and assess against scientific evidence
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The flag is waving, but there is no wind on the moon
When you watch footage, it appears that the flag is waving in
the wind. But there is no atmosphere on the moon. How canit be waving?
Does this mean that the whole thing was filmed in a studio on
Earth?
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The flag is waving, but there is no wind on the moon
Its difficult to believe that such a mistake would be made. Surely if
it was filmed on Earth, the producers would ensure that the flagdid not move
The flag is moving a lot. I do not know any studios that are that
windy. The producers would need a huge fan to make the flagmove like that.
And with a fan that big, surely the dust would be blowing around
too.
It is unlikely that a hoaxed moon landing would have a moving
flag. They would try to make it motionless.
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The flag is waving, but there is no wind on the moon
Try this explanation
In low gravity with no no friction, things keep moving. For example: when aspace walking astronaut spins an object in space, it keeps spinning.
To spread the flag in a zero wind environment, it was attached to a wire frame.
The astronaut twisted the flagpole to plant it in the ground. This motion caused
the flag to move back and forwards. With low gravity and no atmosphere it keptmoving until the astronaut stopped it manually.
Is there another explanation? Discuss
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The flag is waving, but there is no wind on the moon
Check this clip from myth busters
[not embedded, load from folder with VLC]
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Shadows incorrect
Conspiracy theorists complain that shadows of astronauts are inconsistent.
This can only be explained if there are two sources of light, as in a studio.
One shadow is much longer than the other
But is this convincing? The photo is very blurred. If we could see the unblurred
photo, we might understand why the shadows look this way.
Why do you think the shadows look like this? Discuss.
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Shadows incorrect
Lets add the contour lines of the area they are running in
One astronaut is heading down a slope
Try this experiment yourself. If you have the sun behind you, and you are
going downhill, your shadow is long. If the sun is behind you as you head
uphill, your shadow is short.
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Shadows incorrect
Consider another lighting problem
Why is the astronaut so brightly lit? The spacecraft is dark, so the sun is
obviously on the other side. Surely the astronaut should be dark and in shadow.
He is lit up as if there is another source of light.
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Shadows incorrect
Well, there is another source of lightThe Moon
It is very white and is reflecting the light from the sun back towards the
astronaut. Its like being surrounded by snow. It is a very bright environment.
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Camera Evidence
Who took the pictures and footage of Neil Armstrong stepping out to become
the first person on the moon?
Easy answerthey filmed it with the space crafts external camera
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Camera Evidence
But look at this photographic anomaly. See the crosshair on the left side of the
image appears to be behind the item in the photograph. Does this mean these
pictures are bad fakes?
No! The crosshairs are reference points. The pictures were transmitted back toearth in blocks and then reassembled later.
The crosshairs gave a reference point for where to assemble the pictures.
The crosshairs were part of block A, and block B was pasted over the top.
No big mystery here.
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The problem of radiation
On Earth, we are protected from the suns radiation by our atmosphere. There
is no such protection on the moon or on board a space craft.
Some theorists suggest that when moving beyond the International
Space Station, a space craft would need several inches of lead shielding to
protect the astronauts on board.
They conclude that the astronauts should have been radiated to death!
Problem is that these theorists are denying the possibility of falsification of
their theory. They are stating, without experimental evidence, that the astronauts
would die.
When presented with the possibility that astronauts didsurvive, these theorists
do not recheck their theories. Instead, they declare the whole thing a hoax.
Thats not the way science works.
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The problem of radiation
The idea that no-one can survive out there can only be confirmed or denied
by actually sending someone up there.
Since these theorists do not believe that anyone has been out there, they
have no grounds upon which to assert the truth of their claim.
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The problem of radiation
The idea that radiation would kill astronautsbetrays a misunderstanding of radiation in
space.
True, the sun releases bursts of radiation, but not all radiation is harmful.
Low energy particles can be stopped by a spacecrafts hull or by the
astronauts suit.
High energy particles can pass right through the ship and through people without
actually interacting with their body cells.
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The problem of radiation
The most dangerous energy level sits in the midrange. These are produced
by solar flares. Luckily solar flares do not happen every day, and they do not
shoot particles in all directions.
Furthermore, exposure to harmful radiation does not guarantee death. It just
raises the probability of early death. It is possible for an astronaut to live a long
life after exposure to solar flare radiation.
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Common Sense
Think about the political state of the time.
It was the Space Race!
The Russians were watching the US very closely. They would know if it had
been faked, and they would have been very quick to alert the rest of the world.
But that did not happen. Conspiracy theories originated within the US itself by
people who were not trained in science.
Skepticism is good, but we have to be rational about the evidence.
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For the rest of the session
Go to youtube and watch clips from the moon landing.
In particular, see if you can find a way to solve this conspiracy claim:
The astronauts are movingasifthe film is beingplayed backinslowmotion.
Thatis howtheyfakedthe lowgravity environment.
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Powerpoint by BRENT SILBY
www.def-logic.com
Produced at UPT
Christchurch, New Zealand
www.unlimited.school.nz