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Allegations of photo trickery cast doubt on the authenticity of some of NASA's manned lunar " "miSSIons. Part 1 L'.' .~,*c'",.:'i). ,F·~;~::WZ ...rm'!";l:·t"f".Y'E~.~'11 AUGUST -SEPTEMBER 1995 NASA'S SPACE MISSIONS -HIT OR MYTH? When Rene's book, NASA Mooned America!, landed on our desk, it merely added to the growing pile of books, articles and videos detailing anomalies about the Moon and ourexploration ofit. Itprompted us tobeginathree-part series ofarticlescovering some of the more intriguing pieces of the puzzle. In this issue we look at some photographic discrepancies from the Gemini and Apollo space missions... THE STARS, OR LACK OF THEM There are no stars in most of the photographs taken on the lunar surface. With no atmosphere to diffuse their light, surely stars would have been clearly visible? Even the astronauts were confused about the stars, or lack of them. In Harry Hurt Ill's book, For All Mankind, Neil Armstrong is quoted as saying, "The sky is black, you know," and "It's a very dark sky." But on the other hand, during the Gemini 10 mission while space-walking, Michael Collins reported, "My God, the stars are everywhere: above me on all sides, even below me someWhat, down there next to that obscure horizon. The stars are bright and they are steady." Three years later he wrote of his journey to the Moon in Apollo 11: "I can't see the Earth, only the black starless sky behind the Agena... ", and then later, "As I slowly cart wheel away from the Agena, I see nothing but the black sky for several seconds..." In fact, there is a whole chapter in Rene's book dedicated to these discrepancies. It appears that some astronauts on some missions saw stars, and others didn't. The Russian cosmonauts reported seeing stars incidentally. MOON DUST ANOMALIES Why, in all the video and photo footage, are there no craters under the landing module? Surely after all that blasting from the descending rockets there would be a crater. Why, in all the video and photo footage, is there no Moon dust or dirt on the support struts of the command module? Surely after all that blasting from the descending rockets there would be dust or dirt on the struts. We certainly see it as the astronauts walk about. It has also been pointed out that the clear and distinct footprints in many shots of astro nauts on the Moon's surface are highly suspicious. Apparently such clear impressions can only be made in soil, dirt or dust with moisture present. WHO TOOK THOSE PHOTOS~ A classic example is the take-off of the Apollo 16 LEM. The camera that recorded the blast-off panned upward to track the capsule. Who operated the camera? The backgrounds of nearly all NASA's lunar photos become suddenly different and indistinct. Many photographers point out the similarity to painted backdrops. The Sun creates only parallel shadows here on Earth, so why did so many NASA Moonscape photos have non-parallel shadows? During Apollo 11, either Armstrong or Aldrin went gambolling past the LEM. What we saw was the typically blurry ghost TV picture that we received from that mission, but why could we see the LEM clearly through the astronaut? Examine the photographs on the following pages and join us next issue for an in-depth feature where we look at strangefeatures on the Moon's surface itself. (Ed.) NEXUS • 45