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Many of the arguments against the reality of Apollo moon landings between 1968 and 1972 focus on details of lunar photography: the consistency of shadow directions, absence of dust on the landing pads, visor reflections, fluttering flags, duplicate land forms in different lunar locations.  

 

But an examination of the larger context of the Apollo program suggests the basis for another--stronger--argument against actual moon landings.  This essay looks at several contextual issues relevant to Apollo.  It consists of four parts: 1. a chronology of events surrounding the Apollo program (a decade of early Soviet triumphs and chaos in America), 2. a review of the testing of the descent and ascent stages of the lunar lander, 3. a brief but relevant comment on the capabilities of computers in the late sixties (from some people at Google), and 4. a graphic comparison of the flights of Apollo and the other three or four hundred manned space flights since the first flights of Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard (through 2011, the time of this writing).

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1.  On the Historical Context of Apollo, a Timeline.

 

The chronology below is intended to make a few points, each increasing the likelihood that the Apollo moon landings were faked.  First, the highest level of NASA management derives from the rocket programs of Nazi Germany, hundreds of whose scientists were secretly allowed to enter the United States without benefit of the customary background checks.  In the US as former WWII enemies and special guests of the government, the directors of the Apollo program were potential victims of blackmail and extortion; they were hardly in a position to blow whistles. (One was deported in 1983.)  

 

Second, Kennedy’s commitment to put men on the moon before the end of the sixties came at a point in the US space program when no US astronaut had orbited the earth and the total time for Americans in space was 15 minutes.  And, in this context, space means not deep space but a single big parabola reaching an altitude of 116 miles (a distance equal to twenty-six San Francisco Bay Bridges).  The astronaut had no real control of the flight and was just a passenger in a vehicle that was barely more than a passive container.  Kennedy intended to create an image of US superiority over the Soviet Union, but, unfortunately for NASA, he and his advisors lacked any understanding whatsoever of the challenges posed by a manned trip to the moon and back.  Significantly, the target date set by Kennedy was beyond his latest possible term of office because neither he nor anyone else knew whether those programs were technically achievable.

 

Third, the Apollo program took place in the middle of the Cold War—the 60’s— a period of exceptional international tension and domestic turmoil. It was, of course, at the center of a highly publicized race to the moon with the Soviet Union, which was first to put a satellite in space, first to put a man in space, and first to put a man in orbit. The promise of being first to land humans on the moon was one of the very few possibilities for being first that Kennedy could name as America's goal.  Since there's really no scientific reason for humans to go to the moon, Apollo's only real purpose was to be both successful and first to send humans there and return them.  Failure of the Apollo program was not a political option.

 

Fourth, it seems likely that both Gus Grissom and Thomas Barron (and the four people who happened to be with them) were murdered by the US government in order to silence their criticism of the Apollo program and to make of them examples to anyone with similar inclinations.

 

Fifth, all of the US lunar missions preceding Apollo took place in a brief period about ten years after the founding of NASA and the space program.  In the first six years of the program, NASA sent twelve rockets toward the moon with various objectives, all were failures.  In the sixth year, l964, NASA finally succeeded in crash landing a rocket on the moon's surface.  Less than five years later NASA was able to begin sending twenty-four men to the moon, twelve to its surface, and returning all of them safely to earth.  All of the moon landings occurred neatly in the first four years of the Nixon administration, an administration now most remembered for its illegal activities, the subsequent resignation in disgrace of the President and the imprisonment of several of his closest advisors.

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The improbability of Apollo can be measured in the amount of time between NASA's unmanned first successes and its manned first successes.  In December 1968 three astronauts aboard Apollo 8 are said to have orbited the moon and returned to earth. If so, it happened just two years after the first unmanned orbit of the moon.  It happened 0 years after the first unmanned return to earth. NASA had never even tried to return a spacecraft to earth from the moon until Apollo 8 (with three humans on board). In July 1969, eight months later, Apollo 11 supposedly landed two astronauts on the lunar surface. Apollo 11 happened just two years after the first successful unmanned landing. Those first two astronauts on the moon returned to the orbiting command module, an event that occurred 0 years after the first unmanned lunar launch and/or docking, that is, no launch--or launch and docking--of any spacecraft from the moon's surface had even been attempted (by any country) prior to the Apollo 11 moon launch and docking (with two astronauts aboard). Also, it should be noted, that no launch of the ascent vehicle had ever been attempted from anywhere. There were no test flights or test launches because it could only operate in the lunar environment (no atmosphere, 1/6th earth gravity) and it had never been in that environment before Apollo 11.  (The descent module had operated in lunar orbit on a previous flight but, as everyone knows, being in orbit and launching from the surface of a planet--or moon--are very different things.  A refrigerator, equipped with retro rockets to nudge it around, can fly if it's already in orbit.)

 

And finally, sixth, since the end of the alleged moon missions 51 years ago, no human of any nationality has left low earth orbit and there are no specific plans in place to change that.

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Items listed in the timeline are color coded by category: NASA and Spaceflight, Politics, Assassination, Social Unrest.

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The Timeline.

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1942-44.  Werner von Braun, a Nazi SS officer, leads a team that develops the V2 rocket used to attack London.  Kurt Debus, a Nazi scientist working with von Braun, is in charge of the V2 flight test program.  Arthur Rudolph, another Nazi scientist working with von Braun, is in charge of V2 production, using 10,000 prisoners from concentration camps.

                       

May 1945.  Truman approves Operation Paperclip.  It changes the records of German scientists and eventually smuggles 1500 former Nazis into the US where they work for the CIA and the military.  Von Braun is recruited to head US rocketry development for the Army along with 100 other Nazi scientists from his German development team.

                                                      

January 1958.  Explorer 1, America’s first satellite, is launched with von Braun’s Jupiter-C rocket.

 

August 1958.  Pioneer 0, the first of twelve consecutive failed attempts to flyby, impact, or orbit the moon from 1958 to 1964.  It is ten years and four months before the first manned mission to the moon.

 

October 1958.  Eisenhower signs legislation establishing NASA.  Von Braun (previously in charge of the rocket program for the Nazis) is named first director of the Marshall Space Flight Center.  Kurt Debus (previously in charge of V2 testing for the Nazis) becomes the first director of the Kennedy Space Center.  Arthur Rudolph (previously in charge of producing the V2 rocket for the Nazis) is put in charge of developing the Saturn V, the rocket used in the Apollo program. He also develops the goals and schedule for the Apollo program.  (In 1983 Arthur Rudolph will be deported.)                                                                                                                 

January 1961.  Kennedy is elected.                                                                                                     

April 1961.  First human in space and first to orbit earth, a Soviet cosmonaut.

                                                                                                   

May 1961.  First American in space (15 minutes, 116 miles high).                                          

May 1961.  Kennedy announces the goal to put Americans on the moon before 1970, one year after the last possible year of his administration.

                                                                           

February 1962.  First American in earth orbit (5 hours, 167 miles high).                                       

November 1963.  Assassination of JFK.                                                                                                 

November 1963.  Johnson assumes Presidency.                                                                                     

November 1963.  Assassination of Oswald while in police custody.

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July 1964.  Ranger 7, the first successful mission to the moon, an unmanned craft that crashed into the lunar surface.  It is just four years and five months before the first manned mission to the moon.  During that period NASA would attempt 16 additional unmanned lunar missions: 2 impactors, 7 orbitors, and 7 landers.  Of those 16 missions 4 failed.  None of the unmanned missions attempted to land a vehicle similar to the Apollo lander nor to return to earth.

                                                  

August 1964.  Gulf of Tonkin incident, used to justify American involvement in Vietnam.

 

August 1964.  Philadelphia riots.  (From 1964 to 1971 there were 750 riots in US cities, 228 dead, 12,000 injured, 15,000 separate fires set.)                                                                                          

February 1965.  Assassination of Malcolm X                                                                                      

February 1965.  US begins bombing North Vietnam.                                                                         

August 1965.  Watts riots. (34 deaths, 3,400 arrests)

 

November 1966.  First US spacecraft in lunar  orbit.                                                                        

January 1967.  Gus Grissom, scheduled as Command Pilot for the first Apollo mission the following month, says “US is at least a decade away from even contemplating a lunar mission” and hangs a lemon from his garden on the Apollo flight simulator.  According to his wife, Grissom had warned her that "if there is ever a serious accident in the space program, it’s likely to be me.”   

 

January 1967.  Five days later, a fire during a simulated launch, traps Grissom, White, and Chaffee inside the space capsule.  They all burn to death. The engineer who investigated the fire said, 30 years after the incident, the fire seems to have been started by a spark produced by the activation of that switch, a finding still concealed by NASA.  Grissom’s wife and son, a commercial pilot, believe he was murdered by NASA.

                                      

April 1967.  Following the death of the Apollo 1 crew, a Congressional Committee investigates.  Thomas Barron, a quality control and safety inspector for NAA, manufacturer of the Apollo command module, testifies that the Apollo program is in such disarray that the US will never make it to the moon, and gives the Committee a 500-page report critical of NASA.

               

April 1967.  Eight days later, a few days before the public release of his report, the car of Thomas Barron is hit by a train.  Barron, his wife and his daughter are killed.  The 500-page report disappears and has never been found.

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April 1967.  First US spacecraft to land on the moon.

                                                                                                        

July 1967.  Newark riots. (26 deaths, 1500 arrests)                                                                    

July 1967.  Detroit riots. (43 deaths, 7200 arrests)                                                                       

January 1968.  Tet Offensive turns a majority of Americans against war.                                   

March 1968.   Johnson announces he will not run again.                                                                

April 1968.  Assassination of MLK.                                                                                              

April 1968.  Washington riots. (12 dead, 6100 arrests)                                                                 

April 1968.  Chicago riots. (39 dead, 2100 arrests)                                                                       

April 1968.  Baltimore riots.  (11dead, 6200 arrests.  In April 1968, 58,000 troops were used to control riots in 138 cities in 36 states.)                                                                                             

June 1968.  Assassination of RFK.                                                                                                 

December 1968.  Apollo 8. First three humans in lunar orbit. (25 months after the first unmanned US lunar orbit.)  The return to earth of the three astronauts was the first time any US spacecraft had ever returned to earth from the moon.

                                                                                         

January 1969.  Nixon elected.                                                                                                               

July 1969.   Apollo 11.  First two humans land on the moon.  (27 months after the first unmanned US landing on the moon.).  The return of the two astronauts from the surface of the moon to the command module in lunar orbit was the first time any spacecraft had ever been launched from the moon and the first time a lunar lander had docked with a spacecraft in lunar orbit.                                                                                        

November 1969.  Largest antiwar rally in US history in Washington DC.                                         

May 1970.  Kent State shootings.                                                                                                    

April 1971.  Three cosmonauts die in spaceflight.                                                                         

June 1971.  Publication of the Pentagon papers, exposing two decades of deceit by the US government in Southeast Asia, including invention of the Gulf of Tonkin incident and secret bombing of South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

                                                                                

May 1972.  Von Braun resigns from NASA.                                                                                

June 1972.  Democrat campaign office at the Watergate is burglarized.

                                  

December 1972.  Last three of twenty-four humans leave moon.                                                   

November 1973.  Nixon says he is “not a crook.”                                                                                 

June 1974.  Colson, Special Counsel to Nixon, is sent to prison.                                              

August 1974.  Nixon resigns.  Ford assumes Presidency.                                                               

September 1974   Ford pardons Nixon.                                                                                                   

January 1975.   Haldeman, Chief of Staff for Nixon, is sent to prison.

                                          

January 1975.  Ehrlichman, Assistant for Domestic Affairs for Nixon, is sent to prison.

          

February 1975.  Mitchell, Attorney General for Nixon, is sent to prison.

                                        

November 1983.  Arthur Rudolph is deported.                                                                                       

January 1986.  Challenger explodes.  Seven astronauts are killed.                                                 

February 2003.  Columbia disintegrates.  Seven astronauts are killed.

                                             

January 2004.  Bush43  announces the goal of returning Americans to the moon by 2020, 47 years after the the end of Apollo and eleven years after his last year in office.

                                

2024.  For the first time since the last astronaut pretended to leave the moon in 1972, fifty-one years ago, NASA has returned to the moon. As if to underline its incompetence regarding lunar missions, NASA sent a privately built unmanned lander to the moon which tipped over on landing, effectively ending the mission.  NASA still has no specific program to send humans beyond earth orbit.     

           

 

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2.  On the testing of the lunar lander.

 

The lunar module consists of two spacecraft: the command module which remains in lunar orbit (and carries the astronauts back to earth), and the lunar lander, which as the name suggests is designed to land on the moon. The lander consists of an upper (ascent) and lower (descent) stage.  Contrary to their names, the lander's two parts are intended to work together to descend to the moon's surface. To return to the command module, the two parts separate. The descent stage remains on the moon, the ascent stage returns to the command module by itself. 

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The lunar lander is shown on the left above, the lunar lander research vehicle (LLRV) is shown at the same scale on the right above. Although the research vehicle vaguely resembles the lower part of the lunar lander, the two vehicles are very different. The research vehicle flies by itself in the gravity and atmosphere of the earth. In contrast, the lower part of the lunar lander (descent stage) can fly, If at all, only together with the upper part of the lander (ascent stage) and only in the reduced gravity and negligible atmosphere of the moon. So successful flights of the LLRV could not be reasonably interpreted as successful tests of the lunar lander with which it shares a similar form and nothing else.

 

Although the LLRV's have four legs and a centrally located power source like the descent module, the similarities end there.  The legs of the LLRV are designed for the grassy field at the testing facility, the legs of the lander are designed for the moon. A jet engine, air dependent, powers the research vehicle, a rocket engine provides power for the lunar lander. Above the rocket engine of the lander is a command cabin (the ascent stage) which protects two astronauts from the various hazards of space travel and houses the controls by which they direct the several phases of moon landing.  In the LLRV the central command cabin is missing entirely, the single pilot sits instead on a platform at the edge of the vehicle, a location that facilitates safe ejection of the pilot before a crash. The test vehicle includes none of the systems required to keep astronauts alive and functioning in space nor, obviously, does it carry on its back another vehicle capable of returning to moon orbit. 

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In fact, the testing of the research vehicle was not intended as a substitute for the testing of the lunar lander.  With the research vehicle NASA hoped to design a system of computerized thrusters that would enable the lunar lander to hover and to gently land. One of NASA's problems was that computers in the 1960's were so slow that such a system may not have been quite possible. Two LLRV's and three improved vehicles called LLTV's were built to train astronauts and to demonstrate that hovering and landing with synchronized rockets was safe and reliable. The results were spectacularly unconvincing. Of the five vehicles, three were destroyed in fiery catastrophic crashes, the pilots surviving by last-second ejections as the vehicles fell, a survival tactic unavailable on the moon.

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And, to make matters much worse, NASA made no attempt to test the ability of the lunar lander itself (the descent stage) to do what the research vehicles could not, namely, to hover and safely land. This task presented a dilemma for NASA: hovering with rockets was both central to landing on the moon and proving to be disconcertingly difficult to do with 60's technology. NASA's solution was to pretend that the LLRV's could hover just fine and to hide the landers' inability to hover by never sending one unmanned to the surface of the moon.  In short, there was no flight testing of the lunar lander (descent stage).

 

In the same spirit of ommission, NASA conducted no unmanned flight tests of the ascent stage prior to manned missions to determine if it could launch itself from the moon, remain continuously stable (the unsolved problem of the LLRV's), find the command module, exactly match its speed and orbit, and precisely dock with it. There was no flight testing of the ascent stage. That series of tasks was never attempted prior to manned landings probably because it was very unlikely to succeed on the first try (or, for that matter, in the 1960's on any try). The first test of each and every one of these ascent procedures (if, in fact, there was ever such a test) occurred just after the first manned landing on the moon. The second flight test was undertaken just after the second manned landing and so on through the six manned landings. These capabilities were not incidental to the Apollo missions. If even one of these untested operations were to fail on any flight, two of the three astronauts on that mission would be lost. There was no plan B for them. If stranded on the moon, the astronauts could not have survived for long and they could not be rescued by the command module.

 

Not to send unmanned lunar landers to the moon to test all the systems (they could not be tested in any other way) prior to risking the lives of twelve astronauts would seem to have been both foolish and grossly negligent on the part of NASA. On the other hand, given the failures of the research vehicles on the lawn at NASA's test facility, NASA officials may have opted for the only available option: preserve the appearance of meeting the non-negotiable and absurd Kennedy deadline (landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade) by eliminating the certain-to-fail interaction with the moon.

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3.  On the computing power of the Apollo program.

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Reblogged from "Inside Search, the Official Google Blog", Udi Manber and Peter Norvig.

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"The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) on board the lunar module (LM) executed instructions at a speed of about 40 KHz (or 0.00004 GHz), about 100,000 times slower than a high-end laptop today. There was also a similar real-time computer built into the Saturn V rocket. On the ground, NASA had access to some of the most powerful computers of the day: five IBM model 360/75 mainframe computers, each about 250 times faster than the AGC. They were running nearly 24/7, calculating lift-off data and orbits, monitoring biomedical data during the mission, and performing numerous other calculations.  We compared that to what Google does today, and we found that:

It takes about the same amount of computing to answer one Google Search query as all the computing done -- in flight and on the ground -- for the entire Apollo program!  When you enter a single query in the Google search box, or just speak it to your phone, you set in motion as much computing as it took to send Neil Armstrong and eleven other astronauts to the moon. Not just the actual flights, but all the computing done throughout the planning and execution of the 11 year, 17 mission Apollo program." 

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4.  On relative distance to earth orbit vs. the moon.

 

All human spaceflight until now (2023) has been at a distance of about 200 to 300 miles above the earth, low earth orbit.  The only exceptions are the Apollo flights, which took place during the infancy of spaceflight and achieved distances from the earth of about 1000 times low earth orbit.  Between December 1968 and December 1972, nine Apollo missions allegedly sent 27 astronauts approximately 244,000 miles to the moon and back.  In the seven years prior to Apollo and the 41 years since, the farthest distance from earth achieved by 447 astronauts was 853 miles (briefly), about three times the height of a typical earth orbit of about 250 miles. 

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The diagram below includes the moon (yellow circle at top) and the earth (green circle at bottom), each drawn in scale with each other and in scale with their separation distance (about 238,000 miles).   Along a timeline tangent to the surface of the earth, the diagram illustrates (in red) the relative altitudes and time sequence of the nine manned Apollo missions and the approximately 275 manned earth orbit flights from 1961 to 2011.  For lack of precise data and for simplicity of the diagram, all altitudes are approximate and earth orbit flights are shown at an average altitude (250 miles) and at average intervals during the time period (about 55 per decade). Geosynchronous orbit altitude is shown in blue (22,236 miles) and the upper and lower boundaries of the Van Allen Belt are shown in green (37,000 miles and 1000 miles, respectively).

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