Take off,
The crew of Apollo 11 only knew for sure where they wanted to go, but they had every reason to wonder if they would set foot on their own planet again.
Kennedy had already made it clear in 1962, when he proclaimed that America wanted to go to the Moon, "not because it is easy, but because it is difficult", and baptized the challenge as "the greatest and most dangerous adventure that has ever been undertaken". the man has embarked. Today, more than four decades after Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins completed their extraordinary feat, JFK's definition remains valid. The summit of this cosmic Everest was reached, but not without facing a very high level of risk. In fact, the Apollo 11 astronauts have acknowledged that they undertook the journey knowing that their chances of successfully reaching the Moon and returning to Earth alive were around 50%.
NASA's bet was extremely risky, and multiple factors could have turned the mission into a tragic fiasco, before 600 million viewers. Although in the end Armstrong managed to take his "small step for a man, and giant leap for Humanity" (1969: EL HOMBRE LLEGA A LA LUNA | Especiales | elmundo.es, s. f.)
But what if it didn't happen this way and it was just a setup by the United States government to gain power and have an advantage over the USSR?
Nowadays, there are so many conspiracy theories both in books and on internet pages that indicate that everything was a conspiracy and the trip to the moon never happened.
"It was such a relevant fact that its importance and veracity were recognized even by the Soviet scientific and intelligence agencies, enemies of the Americans during the Cold War. They would have been the first to denounce a fraud," said Rich, an expert on issues linked to the Earth's satellite.
So how can science help to debunk Moon landing conspiracy theories?
One of the most popular theories revolves around the fact that the American flag that Neil Armstrong puts on the moon seems to move, but how can this be? Because there is no wind on the moon, according to Michael Rich, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, science has the answer.
The flag wrinkled due to the force with which the astronauts planted it in the lunar soil and it stayed in this shape because the force of gravity on the moon is six times less than on earth, so the flag looks creased but the truth is that it is not waving,
Let's analyze with images
In the first photo, we see how Buzz Aldrin greets the flag during the moonwalk, here you can see the fingers of Aldrin's right hand at the height of the helmet.
In this second image taken seconds later, Aldrin had already lowered his right hand, but the flag is still exactly the same as in the first photo, which shows that it is not waving.
But let's focus on this image, do you notice that something is missing?
Many wonder why the stars are not visible in this photo. Making a brief review of the photos taken on the moon we can see that this is a common feature of space photographs where the contrast between light and dark is quite extreme and why is this?
Brian Coberly, a professor of astrophysics at the Rochester Institute of Technology explains that the moon's surface reflects sunlight and therefore appears very bright in photos. That brightness dulls the light of the stars, that's why in the Apollo 11 photo we don't see the stars, the camera can't capture them because their light is too weak. (undefined [BBC News Mundo], 2019)
Taking into account everything stated above, it can be concluded that the man did step on the moon according to the scientifically supplied data and that all of these conspiracy theories that the human being have done refutes science .
Bibliographic references:
1969: EL HOMBRE LLEGA A LA LUNA | Especiales | elmundo.es. (s. f.). Recuperado 23 de septiembre de 2022, de https://www.elmundo.es/especiales/2009/07/ciencia/llegada_hombre_luna_1969/odisea_apolo_11/index.html
Undefined [BBC News Mundo]. (2019, 17 julio). Las teorías conspirativas que creen que el Apolo 11 nunca llegó a la Luna. YouTube. Recuperado 24 de septiembre de 2022, de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-7hKPwfNM0
By Catalina Botero, Step 11
