Mythbusters: NASA Moon Landing Hoax ?!? (August 27th, 2008)

Overall I thought this week’s episode was pretty good. While I wish their was a myth involving explosions (I always love those myths) I thought the myths were pretty original and I liked that the Mythbusters helped prove that the moon landing wasn’t faked. While I am a pretty skeptical person I have never believed the government would go through so much work to fake the moon landing. I know there are probably some skeptics but the Mythbusters probably finally got some of the skeptics to realize that we truly did land on the moon.

Faked Photos

In this myth people think that the moon landing was faked because the following two photos appear to have some mistakes. In the first picture people claim that the shadows of the space craft and rocks should be parallel since there should only be on light source on the moon. To test this picture Adam and Jaime make a miniature that looks almost exactly the the same as the picture. They first take a picture with one light source and no changes to the landscape. In that picture all the shadows are parallel. They mess around with the topography a little and they quickly are able to replicate the picture. They prove that the pictures could be created without two light sources. This hoax is busted.

The second picture that they look at is to the right. People think that there is no way that the astronaut could be lit up so brightly when he is in the shadow of the lunar lander. People think that the only way he could be so bright is if there was a second light. To test this picture they create another miniature and this time they create a surface similar to the moons surface since they think the astronaut is illuminated due to the moon’s albido (reflective ability). The picture proves their theory since the astronaut is lit up despite being in the shadow of the lunar lander. Myth busted.

Vacuum Cover Up

Grant, Kari, and Tory tackle two myths involving vacuums on the moon. For those of you who didn’t know the moon’s surface is actually a vacuum (no air is moving). The first myth about the vacuum is that the footprints wouldn’t have been as pronounced on the moon as they were in the pictures taken from the moon. Since their is no moisture on the moon the dirt wouldn’t keep the shape of the footprint. They first test the myth without a vacuum and they prove that moisture is needed to make a pronounced footprint. They then test it in a vacuum. They use the closest thing there is too moon dust and they prove that the footprints could have been made even without moisture since moon dust is really jagged which keeps the shpe of the footprint. This myth is busted.

The other myth they test is some video footage of the American flag blowing in the wind. Since there is no wind on the moon there is no reason why the flag should be waving. Grant recreates the flag used on the moon. He thinks the blowing in the wind was actually created by the astronauts putting the flag into the ground. They test the flag in a vacuum and they prove this fact since with no air resistance the flag keeps it’s side to side motion longer since there is no air resistance. This myth is busted.

Slowed Film Faking

Adam and Jaime test the myth that Nasa shot the moon walking, skipping, and jumping on Earth by messing with the framerates of the video. The myth states that Nasa shot the astronauts faking the movements faster than normal and then replayed them at a slower rate to try and fake what it would be like walking on the moon. Adam dons an authentic space suit and tries to recreate the motions. They then have him do the movement on a bungy cord which takes into the consideration of the Moon’s gravity. Without the gravity harness the footage doesn’t look that close to moon walking video. With the gravity harness they look pretty close but they are still not perfect. They decide to finally prove that the footage must have been shot on the moon by going into a plane that recreates the gravitational pull of the moon. They reshoot the walk, and skip and of the three videos this one looks the closest to the moon walking video. Myth busted.

Moon Laser

This is one last nail in the coffin to prove that we did indeed land on the moon. Adam and Jaime head to an observatory. They then use a lazer that reaches all the way to the moon. When the astronauts landed on the moon they left some reflectors back on the moon that should reflect back to Earth. First they shoot the lazer at the moon where there are no reflectors. They then shoot the lazer where the reflectors were left behind. They got no return on the first attempt but they do get one on the second attempt. Once again the moon landing hoax is busted.