Oddities: We Never Went to the Moon pp. 188-191

 It’s page 188 (of the PDF) and we’re getting some of the factoids that Moon landing deniers use to prove their point. None of these things actually hold up being based on a poor understanding of space science. It’s a rapid fire approach so we get to move through them quickly.

No Craters: the problem with this section though, is that Kaysing has covered most of it before and this serves as a summary, I guess. It does give the effect of arguing with a child though, I’ve already explained why this is the case and now I have to repeat. So here Kaysing says that there are no craters from where the landing module set down. There wouldn’t be because there’s no atmosphere for the engines to push down. The only thing that there would be, are prints from the landing module’s feet. Those still exist, you can see them in later images of the Moon’s surface. Kaysing ends this section with, “If you can find me a picture showing a crater, please sent it to me or give mthe index number.” I wonder if anyone took him up on that.

No Dust: The claim here is that Apollo’s transcript said they were picking up a little dust and Kaysing seems to think that this means there should have been giant dust clouds which covered everything. Again, no atmosphere to keep the dust in the air. However, if you read the transcript of the landing (scroll down to page 333), they do say that. However, we should take this literally, a “little dust;” because later Aldrin says that he saw a good amount of dust moving around, but then when they lifted off the moon the dust shook off and the detector recorded zero dust (page 476). Kaysing is repeating the mistake of using Earth experiences to gauge Moon experiences.

Lighting: The conspiracy theorists argue that the lighting on the Moon shows the fakery. The image Kaysing focuses on is the image of Aldrin taken by Armstrong. Alrdin has his back to the sun but Kaysing points out that the front of Alrdin is brightly illuminated. There are a couple of things wrong with this description. The first is that it actually isn’t that brightly illuminated. Secondly, the moon reflects the light of the sun, it’s why we can see it. The dust that Kaysing just mentioned reflects light, Armstrong’s suit is going to reflect light, and the Earth itself is reflecting light. There is a lot of light on the Moon.

Chuck Ashman: he’s some radio personality from the 70s and 80s who was going to interview Kaysing but then decided against it. The narrative we are given is a little weird, because it sounds like Ashman did a pre-interview and then bailed. Kaysing thinks this is evidence of the conspiracy discrediting him; but having read this book so far, Ashman’s alleged accusation that Kaysing is an example of “irresponsible journalism” seems right on the money.

Tom Baron: Our fourth revisit to this character in the story. Now we are being told that he was drugged, because “a friend” contends this. If Kaysing believed this story, it should have been in the initial telling of the event.

Lunar Gravity: If only NASA would release the data on the Moon flights Kaysing would accept the account.

David Hunstman: This story is strange. Kaysing goes on Tom Snyder’s show and afterwards gets calls and letters. One claims to be from a David Hunstman of the Houston Space Center who meets Kaysing. Kaysing gives him some documents and then Huntsman leaves. Afterwards Kaysing says that he discovered that Hunstman worked for Armstrong. That’s the story. There’s no reason to include this at all, it’s such a non-story.

Jim Oberg: This entry is more in line with what I know of conspiracy theorists. They do not like to be criticized in any way. If they find out they have been criticized they immediately attack the critic as being in on the conspiracy. Bill Cooper was kicked out of the UFOlogy circuit because he kept picking fights with people who disagreed with him and some of whom called him a liar. Alex Jones had a long hatred for former CNN anchor Brian Stetler, as well as David Icke, and an on again off again relationship with Joe Rogan. Here some guy named Oberg called Kaysing a “nut and poorly informed” so Kaysing tells us that a correspondent told him he worked for the CIA. Sure, this happened.

Cactus Springs: someone told Kaysing he was correct, so Kaysing went to see the woman in Sparks Nv (I have no idea why this entry is called “Cactus Springs”) and the woman said she never told him that. Then the police intervened because the woman felt threatened.

KOME: This is a story about how a radio transmitter caught on fire during an interview. Which we were told was the result of an aerial bombing with a flammable substance. Kaysing wants to know who has the authority to bomb a radio station. I’m fairly certain he is misunderstanding the entire event. If “they” have the power to bomb a radio station with napalm, they either would have done it before Kaysing spent an hour and a half on the radio.

Capsule a caller into a broadcast Kaysing was on told him that he was an airline pilot who saw a high-flying plane drop a command capsule into the ocean. Alright, this doesn’t prove anything. It can’t be verified (again, possible hoax), but even if true, this could also have been a test flight.

The Phone Call A person called into a radio show claiming to be Army Intelligence and knew that Kaysing was telling the truth.

Finally, we have “The Electronics Expert” which is just the same story as the last few only this person claims that the transmission from the spacecraft were done at the gigahertz level. Another person says that a satellite broadcast on the same frequency as the capsule. I don’t know why these two were lumped together.

I think what is happening is that people are pranking Kaysing and he doesn’t understand it. A conspiracy theorist will eventually lose their ability to think critically because their emotional need for the theory to be true becomes so great. My assumption is that any letter that Kaysing received claiming to be from someone in NASA sends him on a trip whether that person is real or not. He can’t differentiate between real and not real as long as it agrees with his theory.