NationStates Jolt Archive

BEIJING, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese leading moon scientist Ouyang Ziyuan said here Friday that the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon was credible.

"Although there is no atmosphere on the Moon, the U.S. flag could still fly due to the shaking of the pole," he said, saying that he had conducted a similar experiment himself.

"I believe the Americans really did land on the Moon," he told the 36th Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR).

Most knowledge about the Moon came from the Apollo program, he added.

Doubt has been cast on the credibility of the Apollo 11 landing by some scientists, who argue that the flag planted in the ground could not flap because of the absence of atmosphere.

American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin set foot on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The Apollo program put a total of 12 astronauts on the Moon, the last in 1972.

Xinhua (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-07/21/content_4865916.htm)

OMG, the Chinese are in on it too now! Quick, we need more tinfoil hats!
:D

Hey! I like tin hats.

Psh, the real conspiracy is tin foil companies. Those are the people reading your thoughts. Forsake them. Aluminum foil forever!

The US flag on the moon was held up by the wire, to make it straight. Without an atmosphere, it would have just hung there, motionless.

When can we move on to more important things? Like picking apart the budgets of every industrialized nation in the world? America has just made this easier because Congress is busy passing legislation that will create a google-style website allowing the average schmoe to look at particualr items as well as the whole darned thing. I bring this up simply because everybody with an I.Q. of at least 70 knows that we landed on the moon and that we used a metal suppurt to make Old Glory all nice and straight and rectangular for us. Stop talking about the idiocies of people talking about other people's idiocies and get on to important things, that being, the ingenuity of certain people in trying to capitalize on another person's ingenutiy.

When can we move on to more important things? Like picking apart the budgets of every industrialized nation in the world? America has just made this easier because Congress is busy passing legislation that will create a google-style website allowing the average schmoe to look at particualr items as well as the whole darned thing. I bring this up simply because everybody with an I.Q. of at least 70 knows that we landed on the moon and that we used a metal suppurt to make Old Glory all nice and straight and rectangular for us. Stop talking about the idiocies of people talking about other people's idiocies and get on to important things, that being, the ingenuity of certain people in trying to capitalize on another person's ingenutiy.

Speaking of picking apart stuff, what's this "ingenutiy" you speak of?

Poor China, 30+ years too late to be first.

Didn't Neil and/or Buzz set up the flag so it looked like it waved...or made it wave. I think these people are "poking a corpse thinking it is alive".

Poor China, 30+ years too late to be first.
Poor America, wanting to be first, a second time. Only reason they are talking about a return to the Moon now is because they want to get there ahead of China. Bizarre though it may seem...

The US flag on the moon was held up by the wire, to make it straight. Without an atmosphere, it would have just hung there, motionless.

The flag was unrolled after being sealed in a circular tube, that accounts for the ripples on the flag. The mechanism that attaches it to the poll was much like that of an umbrella - you may notice taut movements if you look at the video footage.

Thats the thing about us Americans...we thrive, or die, on competition.

Thats why we went there in the first place.

I'm usually a conspiracy theory buff myself but in the case of the moon landing I'm mostly with the official line.

The Soviet Union at the time had immense space tracking and telemetry resources, they could have exposed the entire charade easy as pie. They would have no reason to pass on such a 'US Fraud Exposed/Pwned' kudos.

This is especially probable considering the KGB was at the apex of its glory, institutions such as NASA were throughly penetrated. It would be damn near immpossible to hide such a deception!

Not to mention the Soviet Union did a fly-by of the Moon with Zond 5 in September 1968, with a payload of live animals which were returned safely to Earth. This, before Apollo 8 did the same with people. So the Russians knew what was possible and what was not - they could do quite a lot of it already. Pity their heavy lift launch vehicle programme was a disaster.

Not to mention the Soviet Union did a fly-by of the Moon with Zond 5 in September 1968, with a payload of live animals which were returned safely to Earth. This, before Apollo 8 did the same with people. So the Russians knew what was possible and what was not - they could do quite a lot of it already. Pity their heavy lift launch vehicle programme was a disaster.

Oh a mod's POV and mine agree. How warm and fuzzy.

Too bad about the N-1 booster. Blew up like a Roman candle, I seen horrible video clip of people nearby burning into incandnescene.

Oh well, thats what happens when you have 81 separate combustion chambers on one rocket. Idiotic design philosophy.

Xinhua (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-07/21/content_4865916.htm)

OMG, the Chinese are in on it too now! Quick, we need more tinfoil hats!
:D

The sun could be a giant ball of fusing hydrogen and fused helium.

No, really. It could! I kid you not! :p

Oh well, thats what happens when you have 81 separate combustion chambers on one rocket. Idiotic design philosophy.
More like a compromise - unlike the US, they didn't have any designs for large engines at the time. The multitude of smaller engines was just asking for trouble. The better course of action would have been not to attempt the compromise at all.