Same As It Ever Is: We Never Went to the Moon pp. 197-End

 As we plow through the appendix, we are now getting to things that were covered at the end of the book. What I am now beginning to think is that the end of this book is really the summary for people trying to argue the position. This might actually be necessary because Kaysing is such a terrible writer. He’s no John Robison that’s for damn sure. As boring as that book was, it was still well written. The counter point to my idea is that it would require Kaysing to be aware of how bad that this book is, and if conspiracy theorists could be that self-aware they wouldn’t be conspiracy theorists.

Moon Photo Lighting: We just did this at the end of the book and it’s the same claim about Aldrin and Armstrong from before. Kaysing asks, “If Armstrong had provided the light source, flash or flood, it would have been reflected in Aldrin’s helmet faceplate. And yet, there is no trace of artificial light showing in the faceplate. Why?” Because there was no artificial light, they used this giant ball of fire that sits in middle of the solar system.

Lack of Stars: This one is simple. Go outside and take a picture of the night sky with you phone. No stars. Kaysing seems to understand this, and wants to know why the Astronauts didn’t bring a 600-pound telescope with film that could survive the vacuum of space with them. Probably, and I’m guessing, because it would require an extra 6000 pounds of fuel and it would be too difficult for the two in space suits to set it up.

Neil Armstrong: There is a certain egotism that conspiracy theorists display. They think that they, personally, are owed answers from anyone that they want. Armstrong was famously unfamous after the landing, he was almost a recluse. It just seemed, from what I’ve read about him, that this was his personality. What Kaysing and this Chicago radio host Warren Frieberg seem to think is that being reclusive is somehow evidence of the conspiracy. Maybe, the man just doesn’t want to talk. Or, maybe, after a bit, they just tire of being asked the same questions over and over again.

Temperatures on the Moon: Another retread. The suits, it is claimed, wouldn’t be able to withstand the temperature differences…unless they were designed specifically to do that. He also claims that the simple shielding in the suits wouldn’t protect the astronauts. The problem for Kaysing is that this is an idiot’s understanding of how space works. What kills you in the vacuum of space isn’t the temperature, it’s the lack of oxygen. Just as sound doesn’t travel through a vacuum neither does temperature. The suit will heat up because of the sun, but when the sun goes away, it’s not like the suit suddenly drops 500 degrees. The lack of atmosphere, the vacuum, the same thing that keeps your drink in the Yeti/Stanley cup from getting warm/cold is the insulator here. Temperature is just energy, and a cold night wind will kill you in the desert after being hot all day, but that’s because it’s actively taking the temperature away.

Cosmic and Solar Radiation: This one is absurd. Kaysing claims that the Soviets proved that the Lunar surface was too radioactive, so they didn’t even want to go to the Moon in the first place. The rest of this short entry is weird screed about how NASA just stole the money…but if that’s so, the money doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere.

Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations

The book breaks right the hell down here, and I wonder if people reading along who did believe were just as confused, bewildered, and nonplussed about Kaysing assuming psychic powers, “We have all had experiences of KNOWING something without knowing just why. I believe that the 20 to 30 percent of the U.S. population that KNOWS we didn’t land men on the moon, know this because of some unexplained method of communication.”

He never says psychic powers, but what else is he talking about? This is the 70s, so communication is either talking, telephone, television, radio, letters, or telegraph. He’s making an argument ad populum here, that there are so many people who just know this thing that there must be something to it. This a fallacious argument for a few reasons. The first is that the don’t “know” it, they believe it. You don’t need facts to believe something, millions of people still like the Beatles even though they are objectively not that good, we only think they are because an entire generation of music critics grew up with them as their core music group and then only hired new music critics who agreed with their opinion. It’s a belief, based on an opinion; just like Moon landing denial.

He follows this strange diversion into the possible psychic realm with a series of questions which are just retreads of things we just discussed in the appendix, which are themselves retreads of thing from the book. There are some new ones so I’ll deal with those.

3. Why was Capricorn I made to show an ostensible faked landing on the planet Mars? Was it to avoid confrontation with the facts of the Moon hoax? This is the movie that stars OJ Simpson, and the link here is silly. The guy that wrote the movie said that he was inspired by the possibility of faking the Moon landing. Setting it on Mars was just a plot choice since the Moon landing had happened already.

5. Why was there no mention of gold, silver, or precious stones? Surely had the trips been made there would have been some discovery…or non-discovery? What the fuck is this? Nowhere in this entire book, or in the entire history of the space program that I’ve read did anyone think that Smaug’s horde was on the Moon. Kaysing seems to think that there should have been an announcement, “Welp, no gold on the Moon.” There was oil either, should they have announced that? This one is so abrupt I don’t know what to think about it.

6. Why did the press not mention that the astronauts were training at NTS? They did, that’s how you found out about it.

The next three are anecdotes from people commenting on the alleged hoax and they aren’t important. The Dutch newspaper is an editorial, the other two people are just a couple of dummies. Kaysing seems to think that NASA owes every single individual a personal Q/A to address whatever doubts they might have. However, as Aristotle points out in the Physics, you can’t teach a person who denies the definition of a triangle.

The writing of the book ends with this line, “I love this country and its people but I have grave doubts about its government…I consider it to be Public Enemy Number 1. I’ll leave you with my own philosophy…”

I didn’t add the ellipses. That’s the text verbatim. These are not doubts that Kaysing has, they are accusations. He wants to leave us with his own philosophy but then never says what it is. I suppose an incomplete thought it the best way to end the prose.

The next two pages are facsimilies of letters denying Kaysing’s request for the Baron report (they don’t have it, because the 400-page version that Kaysing wants very likely doesn’t exist). The third is a letter from the USAF office of public affairs telling Kaysing to contact NASA for the Phillips report, because Kaysing has written to the wrong place. Of course this is treated as evidence of the conspiracy because he’s requested a document in the hands of a different place. Kaysing refers to his mistake as their “Orwellian” practice.

And then, thankfully, “THE END!”