“Moon Hoax Not”: Short Film Explains Why It Was Impossible to Fake the Moon Landing

S.G. Collins doesn’t trust the United States government. They “lie all the time, about all kinds of things,” he insists, “and if they haven’t lied to you today, maybe they haven’t had coffee yet.” Like some of those who express a similar distrust, he claims he has no way to verify that NASA landed on the moon in 1969. But unlike most of that subset, he doesn’t think the government could have pulled off a convincing hoax about it. In other words, America “did have the technical ability, not to mention the requisite madness, to send three guys to the moon and back. They did not have the technology to fake it on video.” Calmly, methodically, with a deadpan wit, Collins uses the thirteen minutes of Moon Hoax Not to explain exactly why, as improbable as the real moon landing sounds, a fake moon landing would have been downright impossible.

“The later you were born,” Collins says, “the more all-powerful movie magic seems.” Hollywood could now fake dozens of moon landings every day, but they didn’t always have that ability. Marshaling knowledge accrued over thirty years as a photographer, he addresses each of the points that moon-landing conspiracy theorists commonly cite as visual evidence of the supposed fraud. He also brings to bear facts from the history of video technology, such as 1969’s complete lack of the high-speed video cameras, needed to shoot the sort of slow motion necessary to create the illusion of low gravity. And what if they’d shot the entire Apollo 11 telecast on film instead? Collins also knows, and names, exactly the problems even the most ambitious, technologically advanced charlatans would have encountered, even—as in moon-landing hoax mockumentary Dark Side of the Moon—with Stanley Kubrick on their side.

Related Content:

Dark Side of the Moon: A Mockumentary on Stanley Kubrick and the Moon Landing Hoax

Michio Kaku Schools Takes on Moon Landing-Conspiracy Believer on His Science Fantastic Podcast

The Moon Disaster That Wasn’t: Nixon’s Speech In Case Apollo 11 Failed to Return

Colin Marshall hosts and produces Notebook on Cities and Culture and writes essays on literature, film, cities, Asia, and aesthetics. He’s at work on a book about Los Angeles, A Los Angeles Primer. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall.


by | Permalink | Comments (14) |

Support Open Culture

We’re hoping to rely on our loyal readers rather than erratic ads. To support Open Culture’s educational mission, please consider making a donation. We accept PayPal, Venmo (@openculture), Patreon and Crypto! Please find all options here. We thank you!


Comments (14)
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
  • yup says:

    My 9th year history teacher claimed the moon landing was fake. He did it as an exercise to get us questioning “facts” but I always did wonder after that… This guy nicely answers those lingering questions.

    Yet this video still urges us to question as my teacher did – brilliant, brilliant!

  • Ben P says:

    The omission of facts and necessity to lie to further the theory proposed by SG Collins in his video is frightening. For a thoroughly researched counter to these claims (that even explains the minimalist amount of research SG Collins should/could have put into his video), the link is below.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3zhZqiSe5c

  • AwE130 says:

    In October 2012 we discovered a reflection that showed up in one of the Apollo 11 images. We asked people from both sides of the debate to have a look at it and to see what may have caused this reflection. We will now present our own investigation and the theory we would like to put forward for debate. We will start with the image that shows the upside down reflection of the number two.
    http://awe130.nl

  • Marc Barrett says:

    What really interests me is the incredible ignorance necessary to believe in these ‘Apollo conspiracy’ theories. In order to believe in these things, it is necessary to know practically nothing about the Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury missions. Study just a little bit about these missions, and it is easy to see how the conspiracy theories fall to pieces.

    The Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions were a series of small steps. We first learned how to get into orbit and back, and maneuver while in orbit, with Mercury. Then with Gemini we learned how to conduct a docking between two vehicles and how to conduct an EVA, among other things. All of the necessary skills and techniques needed to conduct a moon landing were established with the Gemini missions. So why conduct the Gemini missions if the moon landings were going to be faked? Or, put the other ways, why fake the moon landings if we have all the skills and techniques needed to do it as established by the Gemini missions? Either ways, it just does not not make sense.

  • AwE130 says:

    Eyewitness Report Richard C Hoagland.
    We found this eyewitness report from Richard C hoagland, He was a Science Advisor to CBS News during the Apollo program, 1968–1971.
    http://awe130.nl/index.php/the-news-awe130/22-eyewitness-report-richard-c-hoagland.html

  • AwE130 says:

    Eyewitness Report Richard C Hoagland.
    We found this eyewitness report from Richard C hoagland, He was a Science Advisor to CBS News during the Apollo program, 1968–1971. Apollo 11 filmed in a sound studio?
    http://awe130.nl/index.php/the-news-awe130/22-eyewitness-report-richard-c-hoagland.html

  • AwE130 says:

    http://www.awe130.nl/index.php/apollo-image-gallery-1.html
    Apollo images that where on display in the “Apollo Lunar Surface Journal” form 1997 to 2003. They look very different from the enhanced images they show today in the ALSJ. It is time that NASA is gone investigate the ALSJ and what they did to the images. Many people today have doubt about the Apollo moon landings and it could well be that the ALSJ are the reason why. Look at the images and make up your own mind.

  • AwE130 says:

    Dutch live Apollo 11 broadcast was erased within 5 years.

    http://www.awe130.nl/index.php/interviews/147
    In the Netherlands the Apollo 11 live broadcast was erased within 5 years (according to Rudolf Spoor, Television Director of the Apollo moon landings NOS). ED Hengeveld, an “Apollo Lunar Surface Journal” (ALSJ)contributor who works for the NOS (the Dutch equivalent of BBC) spent some years searching for the tapes before coming to the conclusion that they were gone.

  • Salim Khan says:

    It is ridiculous to hear that NASA didn’t have the camera to demonstrate the faking of the moon back in 1969 but it did have the technology to land on the moon. Funny staff

  • AwE130 says:

    We would like you to have a look at this.
    http://www.awe130.nl/the-news-awe130/383

  • AwE130 says:

    Impossible camera shots Apollo 11nhttp://www.awe130.com/index.php/the-latest-news/114

  • Tawney says:

    Hahahaha

  • AwE130 says:

    Question for the film maker.
    http://www.awe130.com/index.php/the-latest-news/240
    Quote Neil Armstrong: “I remember all the pre-flight testing we were doing on that little black and white image TV camera. In all that testing I never saw a picture successfully transmitted but the chaps assured us that it would and in fact work, and it did. And I was probably the most surprised person in the human race when mission control announced they were getting a picture. So I was never concerned that the picture quality was less then optimum I was just amazed that there was any picture at all.”

  • Wild Boar says:

    Hey man Was one of the late Commers on the old action. So your account got taken down as your site?

Leave a Reply

Quantcast
Open Culture was founded by Dan Colman.