In a now infamous 1961 speech, US President John F. Kennedy pledged that America's space program would "place a man on the moon before the decade's close."

At the heart of cold war battles for geopolitical supremacy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs also became the vehicle for inculcating domestic populations with American values and belief systems.

NASA's growing power, its protection by the Kennedy administration, and the rise of the Right Stuff astronaut as celebrity hid the steady growth of the Military-Industrial Complex that Eisenhower had warned about.

These anxieties--of monolithic social institutions controlling information, and the decline of US global empires--are the core of conspiracy theories claiming the historic Apollo moon landings were elaborately faked. The world was hoaxed.

Conspiracy theorists like Bill Kaysing and Ralph Rene claim that:

Perhaps the most believable part of Kaysing and Rene's scenario is their analysis of the space industry as a political economy. The authors contend that, in a climate of lucrative multimillion dollar industrial contracts and public euphoria, the Military-Industrial Complex fueled the conspiratorial imperative for creating Lunargate.

These hoax theories can teach us much about the Paranoid Style of post-Watergate American politics. The fascination with decoding NASA photographs for clues and analysing suggestive scenes in films like Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Capricorn One (1978) echo Marshall McLuhan's media models and postmodern theorists' fascination with ambiguous texts and the limits of knowledge.

When Bill Kaysing claims that the Apollo 13 debacle was a "simulation within a simulation," or anonymous theorists suggest that director Stanley Kubrick filmed the historic Apollo 11 moon landing (July 20, 1969) on a Nevada soundstage, they offer scenarios that closely resemble postmodernist Jean Baudrillard's concept of American culture as hyperreal:

People's imagination demands the real thing, but in order to get it, they have to create fakes.

NASA's verifiable history has had some questionable aspects:

The alternative conquest of the Moon

Philip Coppens

Man officially set foot on the Moon for the first time in July 1969. Or if you believe we never went to the moon: it is promoted that we officially set foot on the Moon for the first time in July 1969. But there have been stories that extraterrestrial beings had already been to the Moon, or had a basis there… and even that we ourselves went to the Moon long before Neil Armstrong.

Our earth’s satellite, which once every moon turns around our Earth, has driven Mankind for centuries to lunacy. Seeing “the man in the moon” is but one in a long series of stories that echoes our fascination with the white disc that lights up our nightly skies.

The introduction of modern equipment that allowed Mankind to look towards the Moon with telescopes, meant that one Englishmen, Sir John Herschel, directed his scope to the moon at the start of the 19th century. Through his lens, he claimed to see strange objects on the surface of the moon. During an eclipse, he stated that he had observed lights, lights that seemed to move. As early as 1788, the astronomer Schroeter had observed small “swollen parts” on the Moon. He argued that these were the result of industrial activity of the “Selenites”, the inhabitants of the moon. Other astronomers from the era reported light structures, which looked remarkable similar to those observed on cities on Earth. In 1869, the Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain started a three year long investigation, after numerous sightings of anomalous lights in the Mare Crisium part of the Moon.

In the 1970s, NASA wanted to investigate what they had labelled “Lunar Transient Phenomena” (LTP): suddenly visible objects on the surface of the moon. The project was not a success as the project members did not adhere to the project scope. Nevertheless, NASA offered an explanation to these phenomena; it involved gases that escaped from lava, which occurred at sunrise, resulting in ultraviolet light, as well as other particles that create the luminous effect. And if this was not the correct or only explanation, then it could also be due to volcanic activity.

Almost twenty years before Armstrong’s trip, America had been confronted with George Adamski, the archetypal UFO contactee, who claimed to have met alien beings… and have even been given rides in their spaceship. Adamski claimed that amongst the excursion on offer were many trips to the Moon. He stated that he seen plants and even animals roaming the surface of the Moon. In August 1954, Adamski had observed large hangars, harbouring gigantic spacecrafts. Howard Menger, another contactee, stated that he had gone to the Moon in August 1956, where he had seen many buildings. It seems that July-August, even before Armstrong’s visit to the Moon, was already the Moon’s top season for earthly tourism. During a second visit to the Moon, Menger was allowed to take photographs, which he published in his book 'From Outer Space to You'. Menger also reported that he had seen visitors from Russia, Japan and Germany, all visiting the Moon.

Japan and Germany were the old enemies of a war that had barely ended a decade before Menger’s lunar tourism. The possibility of a basis on the Moon at the time was not just the bailiwick of extraterrestrial beings; for some, it was the legacy of the Nazi regime, who had always been fascinated, if not obsessed with the conquest of space.

There are stories that the Nazis had a lunar basis since 1942. To reach the Moon, the Nazis had built an “exo-atmospheric rocket”, measuring 15 by 50 metres, with an engine powerful enough to allow this form on interplanetary exploration possible. The basis itself was said to measure 60 by 45 metres, splashed out over ten floors. NASA was said to know about the basis, but had elected to keep it a secret. Apparently, its inhabitants did not require space suits to walk on the surface of the Moon: normal clothing was sufficient.

According to the story, the Germans had preoccupied themselves with the creation of tunnels in the surface of the Moon. They would have used a free energy device to travel between the Earth and the Moon, used to transport personnel, material and even robots. The launches occurred from the South polar colony on Neu Schwabenland.

To round off the tale, it was said that when the Americans and Soviets made their first joint voyage to the Moon in their own flying saucers, the visitors spent their first night on the Moon in the Nazi sublunar base.These tales are far away from the much more mundane conquest of the Moon. Nevertheless, some mystery surrounding the Moon has always intrigued scientists. The front page of the November 2 1966 edition of 'The Washington Post' read:

"Six Mysterious Statuesque Shadows Photographed on the Moon by Orbiter."

The Lunar Orbiter 2 had photographed a lunar area of approximately 30 by 50 kilometres. The photo apparently showed six or seven towers, appearing in a specific geometric pattern, rising from the Mare Tranquilis. Their pointed shadow indicated that they were either conical or pyramid-shaped. One of the towers measured an impressive 213 metres. NASA countered that the photographs did not show anything of any interest… whatsoever. Perhaps in an effort to merely embarrass the Americans, the Russian magazine 'Argosy' offered the opinion of the Russian space scientist Alexander Abromov. He stated that the Russian Luna 9 had, on landing on the Moon on February 4 1966, taken some bizarre photographs: structures that stood in the landscape in a certain pattern.

"The location of these lunar objects is comparable to the location of the pyramids at Gizeh. The tops of the towers show the same pattern as the tops of the pyramids."

Indeed, many of the photographs that were used did seem to indicate anomalies that apparently did not belong on the surface of our Moon. In the late 1980s, Leonard’s research was handed over to James Sylvan, who reanalysed Leonard’s material. Sylvan then handed his material over to Richard Hoagland, who had been writing about the strange objects that were visible in photographs of the planet Mars. Hoagland and co. used “fractal imaging” to analyse the photographs and identified the various anomalous structures as “the shard”, “the tower” and “the cube”.

What are we to make of these stories? The photographs of most if not all of these claims are grainy at best, and impossible to view at worst. In the case of the claims of Sir John Herschel, it seems that the entire event of his “discoveries” on the Moon was nothing more than a hoax, run by a newspaper. 'The New York Sun' ran the article about Herschel in late August 1835. The article immediately invited scepticism. On August 29, 1835 the 'New York Commercial Advertiser' argued it was a hoax. Authorship of the hoax was attributed to Richard Adams Locke, a Cambridge-educated reporter working for the Sun. Locke never admitted to being the author of the hoax, and the Sun equally never conceded it was a hoax. On September 16, 1835, the Sun did publish a column in which it discussed the possibility that the story was a hoax, but it never confessed to anything. Quite the contrary.

"Certain correspondents have been urging us to come out and confess the whole to be a hoax; but this we can by no means do, until we have the testimony of the English or Scotch papers to corroborate such a declaration."

And as with all of these stories, it will only take a culture of openness and trust – and only then return visits to the Moon – before we can compare the two versions of history: the official version, and the alternative version.

"Moon Hoax"

There are two "Moon hoaxes." The first, sometimes referred to as the "Great Moon Hoax," was perpetrated in 1835 by Richard Adams Locke, a writer hired by the newly established 'New York Sun'. Having already dabbled in science fiction, it occurred to him to expand his activity in this direction without actually telling anyone. For his subject, he chose the astronomical expedition of John Herschel to the Cape of Good Hope. Beginning with the Aug. 25, 1835 issue of the Sun, Locke describes in detail all kinds of fantastic discoveries having been made by Herschel with a telescope of such power, he said, that it could see objects on the lunar surface as small as 18 inches across.

In the second instalment, the exotic variety of life supposedly found by Herschel is revealed, including a goatlike animal with a single horn and "an amphibious creature of spherical form, which rolled with great velocity across the pebbly beach." On Aug. 29, Locke broke the news that lunar intelligence had been found in the guise of "Vespertilio-homo", or bat-men. Finally, on Aug. 31, he spoke of the discovery of yet higher beings and of "the universal state of amity among all classes of lunar creatures...."

Huge interest was created by the articles and, briefly, the Sun became the best-selling newspaper in the world. 'The New York Times' believed the reports both "probable and possible", the 'New Yorker' thought they heralded "a new era in astronomy", Yale was said to be "alive with staunch supporters", while, according to another report, an American clergyman considered starting a collection for Bibles for the lunar inhabitants.

The fact that the "Moon Hoax" was almost certainly nothing of the kind has been argued compellingly by Michael Crowe who cites an account of the affair written by William Griggs in 1852. According to Griggs:

"We have the assurance of the author, in a letter published some years since, in the New World, that it was written expressly to satirize the unwarranted and extravagant anticipations upon this subject...."

Yet, the irony is, the hoax failed because the public had been primed for so long by the strident advocates of pluralism to expect intelligent life on other worlds.

The second "Moon hoax" is the more modern claim that the Apollo missions never landed on the Moon. Sadly, this is born of the same kind of scientific ignorance and naïveté that allowed Locke's tale to take root. It may seem incredible that, in the 21st century, a considerable number of people in developed nations, notably the USA, could entertain the notion that men have not visited the Moon.

This silly scenario was given unnecessary (but, doubtless, commercially successful) support, in February 2001, by a prime-time Fox TV special, "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?" Amateur theorists were allowed to parade such easily-countered objections as "Why are there no stars in the pictures sent back from the Moon?" (Answer: If the cameras had been adjusted to pick up the stars, the surface would have appeared dazzlingly bright).

Unfortunately, NASA may have compounded the problem in 2002 by budgeting $15,000 to hire a former rocket scientist, James Oberg, to produce a small book refuting the disbelievers' claims (primarily for the benefit of teachers and students) but then backing away from the project for fear that it would lend credibility to, as NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe put it, "something that is, on its face, asinine." However, there remains a need, especially in the United States, to counter scientific illiteracy and the growing belief in pseudoscience of all descriptions, including creationism.

While attending the Cape Canaveral premiere of the IMAX version of Apollo 13 in November 2002, Tom Hanks said the film industry had a responsibility to promote historical literacy. He took a jab at the 1978 movie Capricorn One, which had NASA's first manned mission to Mars being faked on a sound stage. 

He said:

"We live in a society where there is no law in making money in the promulgation of ignorance or, in some cases, stupidity."

Of course, there will always be those who remain unconvinced. But it is important for the future, and for the education of young people who may be easily influenced by nonsensical but sensational claims, that the scientific record is set straight. 

References

Evans, David S. "The Great Moon Hoax," Sky & Telescope, 196 (September 1981) and 308 (October 1981).