The controversy being argued about in this world today, is did the United States really land on the moon? I believe that we did set foot on the moon. There are still these questions being asked today like: How can the flag be waving if there is no wind and atmosphere on the moon? How can the footprints from the astronauts be very visible when there is no moisture? Why are there no stars in the background of any photos? The answer to these questions have been answered and opinionated by many people throughout the world. Did we land, or did we not? What do you believe?

People that believe that we didn’t set foot on the moon came up with this theory that the American flag could not be swaying and moving if there was no wind and atmosphere. The answer to what I believe and to what you should believe is about to come. The NASA astronauts came up with an ingenious idea to make the flag stand out. What would be the point of putting a flag on the moon that you couldn’t tell what it was? The fabric of the flag has a wire sewn into the mesh to prevent it from collapsing. As you could have seen on TV, astronauts claimed that the ground was very hard which made it a bit tough to get the flag into the ground. They had to rock the flag back and forth shoving it into the ground. That motion is what caused the flag to end up moving and sway back and forth like it is waving. The wire, though, made the flag seem like it was just sticking straight out causing it not to look natural. The astronauts decided to extend the flag and bend the wire into ripples to make it look more like it were waving. Because of the very little amount of gravity and wind, the astronauts shook the flag and jabbed it into the ground. The shaking and jabbing made it take awhile for it to stop swaying. There was no wind or gravity to pull on it to make it stop, therefore; it was left swaying like it was in the wind when it was actually not.

Another controversy that has been argued with this topic is the footprint let on the surface of the moon. People don’t believe that a footprint so clear could be left and stayed there. They believe that once he set his foot down, the ground beneath him shouldn’t have molded to his boot. That it should have just went away like walking in sand on a beach. They would say, “How is that possible? There is no moisture on the moon.” If you took some very dry fine-grained dust such as talcum powder and dump it out, it is found to be very easy to keep the tracks and hold their shape. It almost feels as if it is moist, but really isn’t. Once again, there is no wind or atmosphere to blow it away or move it. The moon doesn’t have water to erode anything either. The moon’s atmosphere can now lead us into the reasons why people believe it is a hoax according to the stars not appearing in the photos taken during the landing. People automatically think that when they look at a photo of the moon with no stars in the background that it is fake. But what people don’t seem to realize is our cameras here work different than they would in a place with no atmosphere and different positioning. It is just like how some lenses and types of cameras work better for different things. People use different cameras for things such as moving pictures in sports, or taking pictures of things that are just sitting still. The light from the sun hitting the surface of the moon is too bright to capture anything in the distance - it would wash out any light coming from distant stars in the sky. Therefore, the stars are in the distance, which means they were not able to be captured with the camera. If you were standing on the moon’s surface you would have to block the landscape from your vision to see any notable points of light.

Why are the shadows different lengths? Why are they not all going the same way? Because the sun is so low on the moon, with also an uneven surface can deform the angles of the shadows in images. There are several light sources: the Sun, sunlight reflected from the Earth, sunlight reflected from the moon’s surface, and sunlight reflected from the astronauts and the Lunar Module. Light from these sources is scattered by lunar dust in many different directions, including into shadows. Shadows that fall into craters and hills may look longer, shorter and distorted. These facts is what causes the shadows to appear like going different directions. The way things work on the moon are much different than the way things work here on Earth.

For those of you out there that still believe the landing is a hoax, think about the theories and facts stated. Think about what NASA would be like today if we didn’t really land on the moon. They probably wouldn’t be very successful and not many people would want to go there. The moon landing wouldn’t be such a huge part of history if it were a fake. It would be a very risky and tough decision to make for them to fake something. The question is, how could so many people keep the “hoax” a secret? We are talking about having thousands of people hiding a secret that we didn’t actually land on the moon. Everyone knows that we are human. Can we really keep secrets to ourselves very easily without at least telling one person? The answer is no. It is nearly impossible to have that many people keep a secret for so long. All of these facts recently stated PROVE that the United States landing on the moon is real and we did. What do you believe now? Did we land, or did we not?