The Reality Check Episode 48

Moon Hoax + Interview with Bob and Jay Novella from the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe + Taste Myth

 Part 1:

July 20th, 2009 marked the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. But, there are still many people who still don't believe that it happened. 

So what are their claims, and did it really happen?

Statistics from some poll showed that around 90% of the people in the US believes that it happened, and 6% of the people think it didn't happen, the rest aren't sure. 

Claim number 1: Lack of stars in the pictures taken in space.

This is very easily explained; it's just because of contrast. The surface of the moon was really bright, the astronaut's spacesuit was also bright, therefore the stars weren't bright enough to appear in the picture. The picture used a quick exposure time, so the stars didn't appear. 

Claim number 2: There wasn't a blast crater; when the spaceship landed on the moon, it should have had a huge crater, yet it was nothing there. 

This explanation is that they fired the rocket hard enough to de-orbit, but slow enough to land on the moon, and they approached the moon gently. Because there wasn't air, it wouldn't 'spread as much as well, and in the end they only pressured one pound per meter. 

Claim number 3: There are pictures showing when the spaceship landed, a lot of dust were being blasted away, but you can see footprints right beside the blasting area. So, why didn't those footprints get blasted away as well?

There are no air there, so the only dust that would move would be the dust right beneath the blasters.

Claim number 4: Photos on the moon showed objects and people with shadows, but if the sun is the only source of sunlight as NASA said so, then the shadows should be parallel, but they aren't. 

The shadows don't look parallel because we are looking at a 3 dimensional scene shown to us from a 2 dimensional photograph. That caused distortions. Even here on Earth, that would happen as well. 

Claim number 5 (the most famous one): When the astronauts are assembling the flag in a video, the flag waved. 

You don't see dust blowing, so therefore, there is no breeze. Another thing is that the astronauts are mounting the flag up, and it moves, so the clothe of the flag followed afterwards. 

Claim number 6: The powerful solar winds that our atmosphere protects us from didn't kill the astronauts.

The spacesuits and the spacecraft protected them from the solar winds. 

Part 2:

And now Interview with Bob and Jay Novella from the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe! 

Bob is a cofounder and Vice-President of the New England Skeptical Society.

Jay is a skeptical satirist who lends his unique wry perspective on all things wacky and weird.

They talk about how being skeptics isn't that easy. Because basically, if things aren't falsifiable, then they aren't true at all. But, you can't just go around and tell people that. You have strong believers in religion, and that would be the first thing they think about in the morning, and the last at night. You can't just go to them and tell them that everything they believe, everything they did with their family is wrong.