-Caveat Lector- http://www.guardian.co.uk/spacedocumentary/story/0,2763,516753,00.html On the rocks In a recent survey, 25% of Americans said they believed that humans have yet to walk upon the moon. Why do so many people believe such a notion and is there any hard evidence to convince them otherwise? Surprisingly, there is. Special report: space exploration Dr Matthew Genge Thursday July 5, 2001 The Guardian It was the 1957, Elvis had released Jailhouse Rock, Alec Guiness appeared on the silver screen in a film about a bridge and the USSR had just shocked the world by launching the first satellite Sputnik. With its eerie beeping, Sputnik announced the arrival of the space age and turned the cold war from a brooding silent conflict into a race to reach the Moon. The winner would prove not only their technological superiority but also demonstrate the essential virtue of their basic ideology. However, even with such high stakes would any nation dare go as far as faking landings on the Moon? In a recent survey, 25% of Americans said they believed that Nasa did just that and humans had yet to walk upon the surface of our nearest neighbour in space. But why do so many people believe such an absurd notion and is there any real evidence to back it up? Surprisingly there is. Perhaps the most persuasive evidence that the Apollo missions were faked comes from inconsistencies in the photographs and films taken on the Moon. Shadows in many of the pictures are cast not in straight parallel lines as from the Sun but as if they were from a nearby floodlight. Nasa would say that perspective and an uneven land surface have the same effect but then they would say that wouldn't they? Then there are the crosses that were etched on the lenses of the Apollo cameras. These should always be on top of the objects in the pictures. However, sometimes they're not, suggesting that the images were added later. Is this evidence that the pictures were faked? Possibly, but it could also be that the bright objects are over-exposed, such as in flash photography, and the crosses have been bleached out. How about the identical hills in photographs taken on supposedly different parts of the Moon? Surely this is evidence that the same set was used to fake the images? The spokesperson for Nasa would no doubt shrug and say that one bit of the Moon looks very much like another and perhaps they'd be right. The list of Apollo inconsistencies goes on and on and it would perhaps be unfair to dismiss the observant souls who have noticed them as crackpots. As with most conspiracy theories, it's just a case of who you want to believe. So is there any irrefutable evidence that the Apollo missions really took place, that the most momentous landmark event in human history actually happened and that we haven't all been taken for one huge PR ride? Luckily the answer is in the rocks. The Apollo missions returned 382 kilograms of rock and there is one thing that is absolutely clear, they are not from Earth. The oldest Apollo rocks, for example, are 4.44bn years old and thus formed some 640m years before the oldest rocks found on Earth. The great age of the lunar rocks is because the Moon, unlike our planet, is geologically dead and thus its rocks have not been disrupted by the churning of its interior and its volcanoes are long ago extinct. The Apollo rocks also lay testament to a very fiery birth that boiled away most of the Moon's lighter elements. This revelation led directly to the realisation that our Moon formed from the hot debris of a giant impact with the Earth only 50m years after our planet itself formed. There are no rocks on Earth that tell such a story. There would be no way to fake these rocks. Stuffing the right elements into minerals so they appear to be ancient simply can't be done. It's a case of the round hole and the square peg. Only if the peg starts off round and through billions of years of radioactive decay ends up square, by turning itself into another element, can it make it into the mineral. Perhaps then the Apollo samples really aren't Earth rocks at all but some rare meteorite cleverly adopted by Nasa? However, the oxygen they contain is very different from known meteorites (except those from the Moon) and similar to that of the Earth. Only if the Apollo rocks come from an object that formed at a similar distance from the Earth as the early Sun could this be explained. The Moon is, of course, the prime candidate. Conspiracy theories are unfortunately such attractive notions to the human psyche that scientific evidence, however elegant, often fails to impress. There is, however, one final piece of evidence. Although they never put a cosmonaut on the Moon, the Soviets landed the Luna probes which returned 100 grams of lunar soil. They are identical to the Apollo samples. Case dismissed. * Dr Matthew Genge is a meteorite scientist at the Natural History Museum where an Apollo Moon rock can be seen on exhibition. ======================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ======================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! 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