I can investigate the claim that the landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin was a conspiracy created by the United States government. Suppport or defend the claim.
What I did:
My story is from the perspective of Janice, Buzz Aldrin's daughter. I used critical reasoning to take the facts I had found out about the theory and put them into an arguement in the story.
My story:
Everyone tells me I should be proud of my daddy -- my daddy the astronaut. "He's going to the moon!" They tell me. I hear whispers all around me of whether my daddy, the astronaut, will survive his "heroic" trip. He told me he loved me before he left the house yesterday; he kneeled down and hugged me tight.
"My little baby girl, I promise I will come home." He told me. "I would never leave you."
My name is Janice Armstrong, favorite and only daughter of the famous Buzz Aldrin. My daddy is going to the moon!
We are all crowded around the television eating our dinner silently. Tonight is the night Daddy will be broadcast all over the world as one of the first men to step on the moon. Mommy is sitting in her favorite chair silently staring at the television even though it is pitch black. Andrew and James are pushing each other on the couch while still remaining moderately quiet. Then suddenly the clock starts chiming for 8:00, we turn the television on and there is Daddy.
They are talking into the camera about how they are going to land the ship on the moon. Daddy has practiced his lines so many times I could land the ship myself. Images of the ship touching down on the moon pass and then the screen goes to commercials.
"Do you think Daddy will be the first one of the moon?" I asked.
"No way, Neil Armstrong is in charge, he's going to go first!" James said.
"But Daddy has trained just as hard!" Andrew argued.
"Boys please! Your daddy and Mr. Armstrong have already decided that Mr. Armstrong will step on the moon first. Now sit still and be quiet, the show is going to start." Mommy spoke quietly.
And just as she said that, Daddy was back on the television. I guess during the commercials they had prepared everything and were now ready to step onto the moon.
"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!" Mr. Armstrong said as he leaped out of the lunar module with Daddy right behind him.
------------------------------------------- 5 days later at school ------------------
"Would Andrew, James, and Janice Armstrong please report to the principal's office immediately?" A voice boomed over the loudspeaker.
"Janice? Janice, did you hear the announcement? You must go see the principal," my teacher said.
"Yes ma'am,” I said as I walked out of the room.
Halfway to the office I was joined by my brothers. They looked as scared as I felt.
"Children, did you watch Fox last night?" The principal asked.
"Um, no sir. We were doing our homework,” James replied.
"Really? Very well, then I suppose you didn’t see their show called Conspiracy Theory: Did we land on the moon? The one with Thomas Ronald Baron, Paul Fjeld, Betty, and Scott Grissom on it?"
"Well, no sir. We were doing our homework,” Andrew said this time.
"Ah, well let me fill you in then. Many people around the world believe that your daddy didn't land on the moon. They are saying that it was filmed at a movie studio. On the show, the guests said our technology isn't advanced enough to send us to the moon."
"But Daddy did go to the moon. He wouldn't lie to me!" I cry. "He did go! I saw it!"
"Janice, dear, we don't know what we saw."
"What is this I hear you telling my children?" Mommy says as she walks in. Every step she takes echoes her dignity and pride. "Are you trying to tell them their daddy didn't step foot on our moon? That their daddy is a phony?"
"Of course not Joan. I am merely stating the obvious."
"Why do you think my husband didn't land on the moon?"
"Well, for one thing, in all of the pictures you couldn't see any stars!"
"Any decent photographer would know that you can't focus on something as bright as the suits and gear of the astronauts and something as dull as all the stars in the same picture."
"Very well. But the flag? It was waving even though there was no air or wind on the moon."
"It was wrinkled when they brought it out of the module, and there was a support on the back of the flag so it would hang down. Also, they were twisting the pole into the ground which made the flag look like it was moving."
"Fine, but the shadows? They aren't parallel which would indicate more than one source of light!"
By now you could tell both Mommy and my principal were getting upset with each other. Their tones were getting less and less polite and more forceful.
"You call yourself a professor? Each object has one shadow, so one source of light. Also, depending on where the object are located on the spherical moon, the sun can hit them in weird directions to make the shadows not look parallel."
"Well, I um, I didn't see any blast crater under the lunar module!"
Mommy sighed, obviously annoyed by my principal's ignorance. "By the time the lunar module was close to the moon, it was descending very slowly. Also, on Earth the pressure would have been forced downwards, but on the moon the pressure went in all directions so it couldn't make a crater."
"Yes, yes I guess that is true. Do you want to tell me then whether or not those rocks are from the moon or Earth?"
"They're from the moon. First off, there was a type of glass in the rocks that would have been broken down by water if they were on Earth. Also, there was no kind of material or substance found on Earth."
"How can we trust those scientists? They could be in on it!" My principal never likes to lose. I doubt that him losing to my mommy would make it better.
"The rocks were sent abroad to scientists who would have no reason to help our government."
My principal was really getting red in the face. "Your husband never should have survived going through the Van Allen Radiation Belt!"
"How dare you say that in front of my children! Either way, my husband was only in the belt for about an hour and the metal from the space ship helped protect him."
Mommy wasn't very happy. She told us all to get back to class then closed the door behind us but we could hear her yelling at our principal.
------------------------------------ Dinner------------------------------------------
"Daddy, my principal doesn't think you went to the moon! He and Mommy were arguing a lot but I think Mommy won." I said as we were sitting down to Daddy's favorite dinner.
"Ha-ha," Daddy was laughing. "I'll bet she did."
Do I think this theory is true?
I believe that Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong really did land on the moon. People say that the technology wasn't advanced enough, but they don't know this. NASA has never advertised all of their knowledge and breakthroughs to the public so we still have no clue what we are capable of. All of the explanations the mother in the story had to the principals accusation are scientifically accurate. Our government has taken an oath to follow our ammendments and though there are some people just want the power being a politician gives them, there are still some Americans who wouldn't let our government or NASA do this to America.
Bibliography:
"Apollo 11 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2011.
"Buzz Aldrin." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2011.
"Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? (TV 2001) - IMDb." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2011.
"Moon landing conspiracy theories - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2011.
"The Great Moon Hoax - NASA Science." NASA Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2011.
"The moon landings hoax - Did Apollo reach the moon." Astrocentral - Information on the wonders of the universe. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2011.
