Student Name：Taiyang Zhang
Banner ID：@01278901
Professor Name：Manjit Kaur
Subject: Freshman composition II
Date: 09/05/2013
Class: 1023-002

Background of the myths debunked in the NASA-episode Introduction Moon landing has always been a captivating topic around the world. Since its occurrence in 1969 it has brought phenomenal gory to the U.S aeronautical programs and inspired faith and beliefs amongst people that anything is possible. Indeed, moon landing is arguably, the greatest of all the technological advances if the 20th century. However, there are arguments among the general public, scholar and even some aeronautical scientists that the moon landing was faked. Indeed there are a number of conspiracy theorists who believe that NASA faked the 1969 moon landing. These theorists have based their arguments on the political climate of the time with regard for the need to triumph over Soviets and some inconsistencies in the NASA pictorial footage on TV and Photos. However, to understand the basis of arguments in disputing the reality of NASA moon landing, it is important to study the background of the myth in accordance to NASA. Origins of the Myths One of the renowned scientific critic Kaysing & Reid (45) in his book We Never Went to the Moon argues that the mission was a scam. He narrates that after a series of technological problems and disasters, NASA scientists realized that the institution had not gathered enough capability and to deliver the dream of the president of the U.S John F. Kennedy before the end of a decade. So as to avoid the institution form being shut down or loss of funding and giving the Soviet Union a mileage to believe that America was not up their advancement in technology as far as missile designs are concerned. Therefore, a well-planned conspiracy hoax event was planned to make the word believe that moon landing indeed happened. From Hollywood excerpts, Kaysing believed that an elaborate moon-set was featured somewhere in the West of United States.
Bill Kaysing’s book was released in 1974; this was two years after the Apollo Moon landing. According to the Flat Earth society, moon landing was organized by NASA and stage managed by Hollywood and Walt Disney being the main sponsor and directed by Stanley Kubrick and Witten by Arthur C. Clarke. Linda Degh argued that Director Hyam’s 1978 film named Xapricon One showing a hoax journey to the mass is identically similar to Apollo Craft. This actually gave a boost to the hoax theory especially in the post Vietnam War era. In addition, Degh, (102) noted that this happened during the post-Watergate era, the time when the American people had begun distrusting the official accounts. According to Degh "The mass media catapult these half-truths into a kind of twilight zone where people can make their guesses sound as truths. Mass media have a terrible impact on people who lack guidance" (Dégh, 234)
Another scholar, Andrew Chaikin in his book “A man on the Moon” mansions in his book that at the time of the moon landing- lunar orbit mission in 1968, there were many other conspiracy theories spreading around the continent. Motives Critics who argue that the moon landing event was stage managed mention several theories about the intention of NASA and the U.S government. However, three main theories can be cited; the space race, the cold war and the need for funding. The U.S government regarded winning the space race as one of its important goals as a superior power over Soviet Union. However, moon adventure was deemed risky and expensive as depicted by John F. Kennedy famous quote that “U.S had to go to the moon because it was hard” (Carroll, 45) Thus the main reason for that catalyzed the race to the moon was the Cold War. Plait (88) argues that the Soviets had theeir own moon landing progam and a combination of highly specialised scintists who could analyse NASA’s data and hence woud easily raise a red flag if NASA faked any form of success. It was common sence that proving a hoax would have given the Sovieta a huge advantange interms of propaganda. However, the soviets were not of tracking deep spacecraft up to the late 1972 after which, the remaining three Apollo miisions hurriedly wrriten off.
According to Kaysing, the F-1 engine that used on the Saturn, states that moon landing high very small probability of success of around 0.017%. Though Kaysing did not have enough technical qualification to justify his arguments, His arguments in his book We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle has mentioned many allegations that put the discussions on moon landing into discussion perspective. According to Kaysing, despite the USSR’s close monitoring, NASA was very capable of faking the moon landing easily than sending real Astronauts and hence forth guaranteeing implying technological superiority over the Soviets. However, NASA and many other aeronautical organizations and specialist tried to demystify the claims made in the Kaysing’s book. Funding According Kaysing and Reid(98) NASA went to the extreme by faking moon landing so as not only to forgo humiliation but also in a bid to get finding form the government. NASA raised more than US$30 billion for the moon project, and according to Kaysing, this huge amount of money could have been utilized well by “paying off” many people. Apart from the untenable desire to fulfill the presidents goal of landing man on the moon before the end of the decade, others also claimed that NASA was unable to risk the public humiliation incase the project ended tragically as the event would have been broadcasted on TV. Myth busters One of the NASA’s Myth buster units with the help of Marshall Scientists chose Marshall as a suitable NASA’s location for a debunking episode about the notion that U.S never sent man on the moon (NASA,1). The Cast carried out tests on a feather, a small weight, the moon soil boot print and a US flag in a vacuum. The Myth buster team built a small size replica of the moon landing and one spotlight head to represent the sun. When a photo was taken, all the shadows in the photo were parallel just as it was proposed by the myth.
The topography of the model was adjusted to include a slight hill just within the location of the rocks I such a manner that shadows fall on the slope rather than the flat surface. The resulting photograph showed the same shadow direction just as it can be seen from the original NASA photograph taken from the Apollo 14.
Apart from the experimental arguments against lunar as depicted in the above myth busters, other arguments countering the hoax theory is about the practicality of the hoax in the Apollo missions. For example, while conspiracy theorists argue that NASA and U.S government faked the Apollo mission was to deceive the American public of billions of dollars, it is not reasonable enough considering the cost of bribing the people involved in the mission to keep the mission affair a secrete. Furthermore, there were many exhibits and mediums set aside for the moon landing mission and therefore faking such a wide variety of evidence would not only be impossible but a risky affair too. Conclusion A variety of conspiracy theories have been suggested, many of them claim that the moon landing did not happen and the either NASA, its employees or the government have conspired. Others argue that landing event did not occur as it was portrayed by NASA. Conspiracy theorists have focused on the perceived inconsistencies as per the historical record in the NASA missions. Many of the renowned conspiracy theorists have argued that the mission landing was a hoax right from its begging to the end. Keysing in particular in his book We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle argues that NASA did not have capable technology to undertake the moon landing mission. However, the myth busters and other critics against the moon landing conspiracy theory argue that thousands of people were involved in the mission and therefore, it would not have been possible to keep the secrete from the public for such a long time. Furthermore, moon landing was such a complex plan and it just had to happen to appear the way it looked after the mission. Myth busters have also carried out experiments to prove that the information collected by the Apollo mission was true. The moon has always been the ultimate goal of human exploration and the Apollo mission was just one of the in initiatives to attain this goal. Regardless of whether the Apollo mission happened, the bottom line is that Moon landing mission remains one of the major events in human history that has helped mankind. As one of the Aeronautical missions, moon landing has helped to promote science and education as it has inspired generations of children who have grown to become engineers. The mission has also promoted environmental research as well as looking for ways to eliminate mitigate overpopulation of the earth, using natural resources and putting man king into proper perspective vas far sharing of earth’s resources is concerned.

Sources Cited
Carroll, Michael. The Seventh Landing: Going Back to the Moon, This Time to Stay. New York: Springer, 2007.
Degh, Linda. American Folklore and the Mass Media. New York: Indiana University Press, 1994.
Dégh, Linda. American Folklore and the Mass Media. New York: Indiana University Press, , 1994.
Kaysing, Bill and Randy Reid. We Never Went to the Moon: America's Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle! New York: Health Research Books, 1997.
NASA. "MythBusters: Moon Landing Wasn’t a Hoax." 2012. Top Documentary Films. 15 October 2012 .
Plait, Philip. Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax". New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002.

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