The Apollo Hoax, also known as the moon-landing hoax, is a theory that claims men did not land on the moon in 1969. The theory is popular in some sectors, and recent surveys indicate that at least six percent of Americans believe the moon landing never happened. The Apollo Hoax has been explained in different ways. For starters, there are three theories as to how big the hoax actually is.
- Theory 1 is that the Apollo Hoax is 100 percent fabricated. This means men never left the Earth's surface because the technology available at the time did not allow for space travel. Others claim that the Van Allen radiation belts, which surround the Earth and protect it from solar radiation, would have destroyed any aircraft passengers trying to cross them.
- Theory 2 implies the Apollo Hoax has some variations of the truth in it. For instance, it is possible that the Apollo 11 left Earth and even reached the proximity of the moon, but never actually landed on it. Others say that only the human presence in the moon was faked, as it is relatively easy to send robot missions but implicitly harder to send humans along.
- Theory 3 is that the Apollo Hoax is actually a NASA cover up created to hide extraterrestrial data. Some argue that NASA was at the time testing a "zero gravity device" of alien origin and that faking the moon landing was a good way to distract scientist from their findings.
Proponents of the Apollo Hoax say that there are many details that prove the landing never happened. Among them are the fact that the photographs brought back by the astronauts show a sky without stars and a series of strange shadows that seem created by artificial light. These two details seem to indicate that the moon landing was faked in an indoor studio. Others claim that footprints shouldn't show up on a ground surface unless there is moisture, and that the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) should have left a crater on the surface of the moon upon landing, but it didn't.
The Apollo Hoax has many followers, some of which have created extensive websites that include photos and videos of the landing. While there is no proof that their theories are true, they point out that there is also little proof that the landing did happen apart from some photographs and rocks. This is the main reason why the idea of the Apollo Hoax still remains alive.