Moon Landing Real or Hoax

A Science Classroom Activity Teaching Critical Thinking

Jun 27, 2007 Paul A. Heckert

A television show claims the lunar landing was a hoax. This classroom activity helps students to apply critical thinking skills to the arguments presented in the show.

Central Skill

Applying critical thinking skills to dubious claims encountered in the popular media. On the surface this activity is about astronomy, but its underlying purpose is teaching critical thinking.

For the Teacher

The arguments presented in the show and their counter arguments are summarized below. They are discussed in detail in Philip Plait's Bad Astronomy (Wiley 2002) and associated web site. Present the students with the list of arguments and have them work in small groups to come up with counter arguments.

In a class discussion refine the counter arguments. Guide the discussion towards the correct counter arguments with minimal hints. Remember the legal principle of innocent until proven guilty. To convict NASA of fraud, it is not sufficient to show that it could have been faked. One must show evidence that it must have been faked.

Do not allow students to look up the answers. If they do, they are merely citing an authority figure, not learning to think critically. If forced to do so a class can collectively come up with good counter arguments. Force them to do so. Note that they usually require general knowledge rather than specialized astronomical knowledge.

Arguments That the Moon Landing Was a Hoax

These arguments are summarized from Bad Astronomy, which also lists counter arguments in detail.

1. There are no stars in photos from the surface of the Moon. The sky appears jet black in these photos. This is considered one of the biggest points of evidence.
2. Shadows in the photographs are not black enough. There is no atmosphere on the moon to scatter sunlight so light should be coming only from the sun and shadows should be perfectly black. Yet some shadows are not, as if there were another source of light such as spotlights in a movie studio.
3. In addition some shadows of objects in a landscape are not all perfectly parallel. This is especially pointed out in the reflections off the face plate in Buzz Aldrin's helmet.
4. The flag appears to be blowing in the wind, yet there is no atmosphere on the Moon.
5. The Lunar surface is so hot (reaching up to 120 degrees C in the hottest part of the Lunar day) that this heat would have killed the astronauts. Hint: Timing.
6. The radiation in space would have killed the astronauts.

Brief Counter Arguments

1. Just as in night photography on Earth, the stars are too faint to show up in the short exposure times used for a brighter foreground subject.
2. The full Earth as seen on the Moon is much brighter than the full Moon as seen on Earth, because the Earth is both larger and more reflective than the Moon. Either is sufficient to supply a second light source. Plait also presents more technical arguments relating to the direction light is scattered on the Moon, but few students will think of those on their own. Both the Earth and Moon are second sources of light here.
3. Think perspective in art. To draw railroad tracks going to the distant horizon, one does not draw parallel lines. As to the reflections from Buzz Aldrin's helmet, it is curved. Reflections from a curved surface will not be parallel. Look at a motorcycle helmet.
4. A wire, bent in a wiggly shape across the top of the flag, gives this effect.
5. The lunar day/night cycle is about a month long. Go in the morning or evening, when the temperature is nice.
6. They were in space suits and a metal space capsule that blocked most of the radiation.

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