<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Steph Curry is a terrific basketball player, two-time NBA MVP, and one of those wealthy professional athletes who decided to take a stab at becoming a media mogul.\u00a0 It is a little too soon to pass judgement on his budding media career.\u00a0 His attempt at TV production (an exploitation of Curry\u2019s interest in golf via a miniature golf mega course themed program called \u2018<\/span>Holy Moley<\/span><\/i>\u2019) was robustly promoted in the spring of 2019 as the Toronto Raptors slowly deflated Golden State\u2019s \u2018three-peat\u2019 aspirations.\u00a0 While we won\u2019t know if this concept will withstand the test of time, we know that it won\u2019t make a dent in Curry\u2019s popularity if it fails.\u00a0 Curry is one of those high profile types who has a zillion followers on social media and everything he says seems to attract attention.\u00a0 I was horrified when he mentioned in a December 2018 interview that he had doubts whether or not the Apollo Moon landings had even taken place.\u00a0 NASA promptly and publicly invited him to the Johnson Space Center in Houston to look over the Lunar Lab\u2019s collection of Moon rocks (at this writing, there has been no report of him accepting).\u00a0 Why did this shock and horrified me on the eve of NASA\u2019s 2019 celebration activities marking the 50th Anniversary of the first Moon landing?\u00a0 Curry\u2019s statement was sure to set off another round of \u2018the Moon landings were faked by NASA\u2019 blather.\u00a0 Curry can believe anything he wants, but haven\u2019t we seen enough instances of people using social media to spread lies and half-truths in an attempt to rewrite history?\u00a0 A few days later Curry said that he had made his comments in jest.\u00a0 Maybe he did, but opinion polls consistently show about 5 percent of Americans (or some 16 million people) still believe the whole Moon landing program was a hoax.\u00a0 Yes, this kind of conspiracy stuff does drive me a little crazy, so don\u2019t even get me started on those who claim membership in the Flat Earth Society.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This isn\u2019t the first time the concept of a faked Moon landing has shocked me.\u00a0 For over forty years, it was my pleasure to share what I knew about NASA and the program to land men on the Moon with my Geography\/Earth Science students.\u00a0 For them, it all sounded like ancient history. Having lived through the entire manned space program from Yuri Gagarin and Alan B. Shepard up through the International Space Station periodically passing overhead, it was nice to provide my classes with first hand knowledge of these events.\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember exactly when the \u2018fake Moon landing\u2019 question was first broached in my class, but I can remember what triggered it.\u00a0 A student\u00a0 mentioned that they had seen, \u201cSomething on the internet about all the Moon landings having been filmed on a Hollywood movie set.\u201d\u00a0 After my initial (and point blank) rebuttal of this idea, it occurred to me that I should look at the web site in question so I could do what very few who make outrageous claims on the internet seem to do:\u00a0 collect enough facts to present a better counter argument than, \u201cIt isn\u2019t true because I said it isn\u2019t true.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let us go back a bit and examine some of the other things people used to think about the Moon. The only difference in how some of these silly things spread in the age before the internet intruded on our daily lives is the speed at which misinformation now fans out.\u00a0 Many questions humans had about the Moon in days gone by were triggered by superstitions or folk tales.\u00a0 Some of these faded away quietly while others dug in their heels and became embedded in our collective consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n What we wanted to believe about our closest celestial neighbor has always been something of a free-for-all.\u00a0 Many of us with European ancestry recognize the pattern called \u2018the man in the Moon\u2019.\u00a0 The darker Maria (or \u2018Seas\u2019) on the lunar surface certainly do appear to form a face.\u00a0 Does this mean that our neighbors to the south are incorrect when they proclaim the same patterns reveal a rabbit?\u00a0 How about the Chinese fable about the little girl and a jade rabbit that the CapCom at NASA related to the Apollo 11 astronauts as they suited up for the first manned landing?\u00a0 \u201cWe will keep an eye out for the bunny girl,\u201d Armstrong and Aldrin replied to the reference.\u00a0 No doubt it was mentioned to them in an attempt to diffuse some of the pressure they were feeling as the historic first landing neared (and it no doubt confused TV viewers unfamiliar with the old folk tale).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One of the most misunderstood myths is the one about the \u2018Moon being made out of green\u00a0 \u00a0 cheese\u2019.\u00a0 Countless cartoons and comedy routines have been built around the literal translation of this statement (like suggesting the astronauts should bring crackers along for the ride).\u00a0 In this case, \u2018green cheese\u2019 was meant to suggest a wheel of \u2018new\u2019 (not yet aged) cheese.\u00a0 The full Moon <\/span>resembled<\/span><\/i> a round wheel of newly made cheese, not that the Moon itself was made of cheese.\u00a0 I can even remember one of my classmates asking a visiting NASA school presenter this very question back in elementary school which he cleared it up, telling us, \u201cThis is one of the most confusing statements that has given everyone the wrong idea – unless, maybe the people in Wisconsin who actually make cheese.\u201d\u00a0 He beat us to the punch and further explained, \u201cAnd no, a \u2018blue Moon\u2019 isn\u2019t made of bleu cheese, either.\u00a0 It is just the name given to the second full Moon that can occur in the same month from time to time.\u00a0 The saying, \u2018once in a blue Moon\u2019 comes from the fact that having two full Moons in one month is a rare occurrence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When astronauts started traveling in space, people understandably thought they were floating around \u2018weightless\u2019 while orbiting the Earth.\u00a0 The pictures they saw led people to believe there is no gravity in space.\u00a0 In reality, orbiting the Earth is more like being in free fall.\u00a0 Picture the cable and safety breaks of an elevator at the top of a very tall building failing.\u00a0 As you and the elevator fall, the force of gravity is negated.\u00a0 Both the elevator and passengers would feel \u2018weightless\u2019 as they fell.\u00a0 The illusion of \u2018no gravity\u2019 would, of course, end with the sudden stop at the bottom of the elevator shaft, but while orbiting the Earth, there is no \u2018bottom\u2019, just a never ending free fall.\u00a0 The Earth\u2019s gravity pulls the spacecraft downward while the craft\u2019s forward momentum keeps it from being pulled back to Earth.\u00a0 This creates the sensation of weightlessness the astronauts feel and we see in the video of them floating about.\u00a0 For some reason, people assumed that when these free floating astronauts got to the Moon, they would be weightless there as well.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Gravity is caused by the mass of an object.\u00a0 Even people have gravity because we have mass.\u00a0 When one jumps up on the Earth, the Earth pulls them back down because it has the superior mass and therefore generates more pull than one puny human.\u00a0 The Moon\u2019s mass exerts only one sixth of our planet\u2019s gravitational pull, meaning 360 pounds of combined astronaut and spacesuit would only weigh 60 pounds on the Moon.\u00a0 While they were held firmly to the lunar surface and never in danger of jumping high enough to leave the Moon, they were able to use this reduced pull of gravity to take some enormously long strides walking in their cumbersome space suits.\u00a0 On a smaller body like an asteroid, self launching into space may prove to be possible, but let us solve that problem when we actually send humans to an asteroid.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It has been widely speculated since the dawn of the space program that the Moon\u2019s gravitational pull would not be sufficient to hold an atmosphere.\u00a0 Measurements have proven that this is actually not true, but it would not be a good idea to try and breathe the lunar \u2018air\u2019.\u00a0 The nebulous lunar atmosphere contains about one million particles per cubic centimeter, including some particles that just are not found in the Earth\u2019s atmosphere (like potassium and sodium).\u00a0 By contrast, the much larger (and denser) Earth\u2019s gravitational pull holds some 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (or 1 X 10 to the 19th power in scientific notation) parts per cubic centimeter (yes, the nineteen zeros are not a typo).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Moon, like the Earth, is also not a perfect sphere.\u00a0 The Moon first formed from a cloud of debris ripped from the early Earth by a passing body nearly the size of Mars.\u00a0 This rogue body grazed our then moonless planet creating a ring of debris around the Earth.\u00a0 As this debris field coalesced into our Moon, compression of this material heated it to the point of melting (some or perhaps all of the new body).\u00a0 The Earth\u2019s gravitational pull tugged the Moon ever so gently into a slightly flattened sphere.\u00a0 Internally, the heavier materials inside the Moon were also pulled toward the Earth.\u00a0 This imbalance forces the Moon to always keep the same side facing the Earth.\u00a0 Each time the Moon orbits the Earth, it turns one time on its axis, thus keeping the far side of the Moon hidden from our terrestrial view.\u00a0 Sorry, Pink Floyd fans, there is a \u2018<\/span>Dark Side of the Moon\u2019<\/span><\/i> but like Earth, it is the side facing away from the sun.\u00a0 The side we never see gets the same amount of daylight that the Earth-facing side gets.\u00a0 Perhaps an album titled \u2018<\/span>Far Side of the Moon<\/span><\/i>\u2019 would have been more scientifically correct, but then again, maybe not as thought provoking for a progressive rock album..\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the Soviet robot craft Luna 3 took the first pictures of the lunar far side in 1959, it was quite amazing to see how much more rugged that side of the Moon appeared.\u00a0 Considering the amount of material that was falling toward the Sun as the solar system formed, it should not have been too big of a surprise.\u00a0 Perhaps the Earth\u2019s gravitational pull was also responsible for more lava flows being created on the visible side of the Moon, thus obscuring some of the impact sites.\u00a0 The Earth was also pummelled by space debris (and actually, we are still collecting our fair share of hits even today), but our thick atmosphere protected us from some of these impacts.\u00a0 Over time, weathering and erosion erased most of the larger impact sites on the Earth but not from the (mostly) atmosphere free (and thus weatherless) Moon..<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What about the concept that a full Moon causes \u2018lunacy\u2019?\u00a0 Growing up with a policeman father and being married over forty years to an E.R. nurse, I could relate enough stories to corroborate this claim.\u00a0 Whether it is a sociological phenomenon or some innate, primal urge that causes humans to act up when the Moon is at full stage, only some form of scientific study could say. \u00a0 Statistically, data collected by police and medical facilities show an upward curve in their activity that coincides with the full Moon.\u00a0 Standing on top of one of the Huron Mountains on a full Moon night back in the early 1970s, I can say that the \u2018howling at the Moon\u2019 coming from three different directions around us attested the wolves getting wound up by the bright orb.\u00a0 Our cat certainly acts crazier on full Moon nights.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Okay, it is time to get back to the central question we began with:\u00a0 Where the Apollo manned Moon landings faked?\u00a0 As I found on several conspiracy theory sites, the two most telling pieces of evidence brought forth were: 1) the lack of stars visible in the photos and videos taken by the men on the Moon, and 2) the \u2018flapping of the flag\u2019 seen when the Lunar Module blasted off the surface to return to rendezvous with the Command Module.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As one who has taken pictures with a camera utilizing an adjustable lens (not just a point and shoot phone camera), I learned early on that photos taken in bright environments get washed out if the lens is not \u2018stopped down\u2019 to let less light enter the camera.\u00a0 With too little atmosphere to help filter out the bright sunlight, the cameras deployed on the Moon\u2019s surface would have been stopped down to a very small opening or aperture.\u00a0 Against the bright backdrop of the lunar surface, the only star that would emit enough light to be visible in those cases would be the Sun.\u00a0 Even so, when I watched some of the video \u2018evidence\u2019 provided, I could still make out a few twinkling stars when the camera was pointed in certain directions.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle approached the final touchdown, either Armstrong or Aldrin can be heard to say, \u201cKicking up a little dust\u201d as their descent engine lowered them to the surface.\u00a0 When the top stage of the LM blasted off the lower engine platform to return to orbit, it would have also kicked up some dust.\u00a0 Combined with the ascent rocket\u2019s exhaust plume, there would naturally be enough material on the move to make the flag appear to \u2018flap in the breeze\u2019.\u00a0 They even found that the aluminum pole used to support the flag kept vibrating for some time after they had pounded it in.\u00a0 The \u2018flapping of the flag\u2019 in some videos was a product of no atmospheric friction to damp down the movements caused by the astronauts themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A more recent lunar orbiting craft, NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, has taken detailed photos of the six Apollo landing sites.\u00a0 The photos are clear enough that one can see not only the\u00a0 equipment left behind on the lunar surface, but also the astronaut\u2019s tracks.\u00a0 There is also an archive of Moonquake data stretching back fifty years from the first sensors deployed by the Apollo Moonwalkers.\u00a0 Without even getting into the impossibly vast number of people that would need to be involved to fake the whole Apollo program (people are good at keeping secrets, right?), I hope Steph Curry will allow the facts to settle in before he professes such doubts again.\u00a0 It would be fair to note that he did later walk back his statements saying that he was \u2018joking around\u2019.\u00a0 If you want a different humorous take on the whole \u2018fake Moon\u2019 thing, watch Rammstein\u2019s video for their song <\/span>Amerika<\/span><\/i> – it is just as funny as the \u2018fake Moon theories\u2019 that I have encountered.\u00a0 Watching the video, the band also makes some statements about the treatment of Native Peoples, so please do not send me letters complaining about the politically insensitive portrayal of North America\u2019s old west.\u00a0 It is apparent that Rammstein is taking a good natured, tongue in cheek poke at the United States with an undercurrent about more serious issues.\u00a0 If Ramstein gets it, I wonder why all those \u2018anti-Mooners\u2019 don\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 The video for ‘Amerika’ mentioned above:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Steph Curry is a terrific basketball player, two-time NBA MVP, and one of those wealthy professional athletes who decided to take a stab at becoming a media mogul.\u00a0 It is a little too soon to pass judgement on his budding media career.\u00a0 His attempt at TV production (an exploitation of Curry\u2019s interest in golf 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