This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing. At 9:32 on July 16, 1969, the Saturn 5 rocket carrying Apollo 11 was launched at the Kennedy Space Center. On July 19, Apollo 11 passed the back of the moon and ignited the main rocket into lunar orbit. After a rest night, at 9:30 the next morning, the lunar module and the command module were separated. Corinth stayed in the command module alone and circled the moon, spending the loneliest 48 minutes since the birth of mankind. At 4:17:43 pm on July 20, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Six and a half hours later, Armstrong stepped on the surface of the moon, leaving behind the famous saying "one small step for one person, one big step for mankind."
This is the first time that mankind has ascended to a celestial body outside the earth, and it is a feat in the history of human civilization. At that time, there were 600 million viewers who watched TV broadcasts, equivalent to one-fifth of the world's population at that time. However, in the past 50 years, doubts about the moon landing have never stopped. It can be said that even countries that were not friendly to the United States at the time did not hesitate to praise, but they could not stop the Americans from being half-believe in the "Apollo Project." Moon".
Among them, the book that caused the strongest response from all walks of life in the United States was a book written by Bill Kane, a former employee of Rockdyne (NASA’s rocket engine contractor) in 1974-"We Have Never Been on the Moon: A Value The US$30 Million Scam." The doubts he listed are focused on the photos of the moon landing. For example, there is no air or wind on the moon, the American flag cannot be fluttered; the stars cannot be seen on the background of space; the thrust of the rocket engine does not leave traces on the moon; close and distant views There is an imperceptible line in between, which is reminiscent of the "fading drawing" method in movie special effects and so on. In the end, Kane’s surprising conclusion was that the rocket carrying the astronauts was indeed launched, but the target was not the moon, but the inaccessible South Pole. The rocket was ejected from the command module there and recovered by a military aircraft. The astronauts performed the moon landing process in a laboratory on the earth, and then entered the command module and were thrown into the Pacific Ocean, completing the so-called moon landing process.
There are other scientific workers who have also raised questions about a series of hard cores such as the angle of incidence of the sun and the gravity of the moon. If there is doubt, there will be rebuttal. Over the past fifty years, almost every question has been refuted, and it seems to be equally well-founded. Analyzing from a rational point of view, it seems that the US government and the US president have no need to risk the damage to the country’s credibility to tell such a big lie, not to mention the live broadcast. Moreover, there are hundreds of thousands of staff involved in the "Apollo Project," and even if the grassroots do not know it, it is difficult to guarantee that there will be no errors in a certain link, which will lead to the leakage of fraudulent secrets.
We put the truth aside, and here is another question: Why are so many people deliberately questioning what seems to be such a great mission to the moon? In fact, the source of their curiosity lies in why the "Apollo Project" was suddenly suspended? It is indeed normal for them to have this suspicion. This plan lasted from 1969 to 1972. A total of 7 manned moon landings were carried out, of which 6 were successful and 1 failed (the failed one can be seen in "Apollo 13" starring Tom Hanks) , And after Apollo 17 successfully landed on the moon for the last time, the United States halted the entire project and never attempted to land on the moon again. It stands to reason that the United States had mastered the more mature rocket launch technology and manned moon landing technology at that time. Fifty years have passed and the technology has been advancing with each passing day. Why didn't it go even once?
The more mainstream or common sense explanation is that the moon landing plan is part of the US-Soviet struggle for hegemony. It is not only the need of the political environment, but also relying on the strong economic environment of the United States at that time to allow NASA to have a sufficient budget. However, after 1973, when the world oil crisis broke out, NASA received diminishing funding year after year, unable to support the huge expenses of the moon landing. At the same time, with the end of the Cold War, it was no longer needed politically. More importantly, the cost-effectiveness of moon landings is low, and corresponding returns cannot be obtained in a short period of time. Therefore, the US government shifted the focus of investment to other projects.
These reasons are not inappropriate, but for other people with bigger brains, they will not believe such high-sounding words. There is a rumor that the United States and the Soviet Union encountered alien civilizations on the moon and had to suspend their moon landings out of fear or warnings from aliens. Such rumors are not unfounded. Many photos, interviews with American and Soviet scientists, and American moon landing astronauts all show the existence of a suspected alien civilization.
And the rumors about "Apollo 18" is one of the very well-known ones.
According to this rumor, after Apollo 17, the United States also launched Apollo 18 in December 1974 and successfully landed on the moon, but encountered a mysterious alien civilization. According to this rumor, a film "Apollo 18" invested by a Russian company and directed by a Spanish director was released in 2011. It is said that NASA also participated in the film to a certain extent, and the film was once produced as "found footage" (the so-called "found footage" means that the entire film or part of the film is not shot by the creator, but by others. The already filmed material is embedded in the new image context, changing its original meaning to serve its own film).
It is revealed in the film that these fragments are from real images, but the audience is not a fool and can tell at a glance whether it is a gimmick. "Apollo 18" was filmed with a pseudo-documentary approach. Three American astronauts discovered many suspicious phenomena on the moon, including finding a Soviet lunar module, but the astronaut inside had died strangely. Of course, the biggest gimmick is the traces of alien creatures. This alien creature looks like a spider, usually disguised in the shape of a moon rock. The trend in the second half of the film is entirely the path of a low-cost science fiction thriller, starting with one of the astronauts being infected by an alien boarding, and ending with the destruction of the entire crew.
The interesting point is that the end of the film stated that the Nixon administration had distributed hundreds of rocks brought from the moon to dignitaries of various countries, but then they all disappeared. Saying this in the movie is nothing more than a hint that alien creatures have already sneaked into the earth, adding a touch of mystery and horror. However, in fact, the Nixon administration and the Ford administration successively sent out 270 lunar rocks, of which 160 were indeed unaccounted for. Some of them appeared on the black market and the asking price reached 1.7 million U.S. dollars.
A film like "Apollo 18" that is serious and nonsense in the name of science has a budget of only 5 million and a box office of more than five times. It can be seen that there is also a certain market and audience, which at least satisfies the curiosity of some audiences. Mindsets and conspiracy theories. Including the moon landing, why there are so many conspiracy theories in the world, the prerequisite is that these events themselves have some loopholes and information asymmetry, and people often choose to believe what they are willing to believe. As for the truth... it is not so important.
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