APOLLO 11: A Simulation or

Legitimate

Vulapu Srinath
P. Venkata Sairam
Udith Reddy
Varshith

TECHNICAL REPORT

Project Work – B.Tech I Year II Sem

EFFECTIVE TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION

Submitted to
Dr.Ch.Jyostna Kumari
 Table Of Contents

Introduction 1
The Space Race 2
The Tests 3
Apollo 11………………………………………………………………………………………………………4

Discussion and methodology ……………..……..

…………………5
The Theories…………………………………………………………………………………………………6
Why was the flag fluttering?..........................................................................
No stars in Photographs…………………………………………………………………………….
Inconsistency of Shadows………………………………………………………………………….
Photo without a Camera…………………………………………………………………………….

Conclusion…………………………………………………………
……………………………..7

Recommendations…………………………………………
…………………….8

References…………………………………………………………
…………………………….9
 Abstract
The Apollo 11 mission also known as ‘moon mission’ was a historical mission
for bringing the land of moon close to humanity, but was it a legitimate one?
This question revolves around the world even in this century also. As it was a
time of 1960s, and that timeline it was unimaginable to send men to the moon
and still people around the world think that it was Hollywood film by NASA.
Even many news channels such as CBS channel also questioned NASA whether
the landing was Real or Hoax. Therefore, in this report we are going provide the
facts regarding the mission and will conclude that whether it was a simulation
or legitimate.
Why was this mission planned suddenly and why America Chose to send men
on to the moon? American president promised that by the end of this decade we
will successfully take humans to moon and bring them safely back to earth.
Since that day many unmanned missions were tested by NASA and in their 11th
mission that is Apollo 11, they were ready to send three men, Commander Neil
Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins to the surface of moon.
When the three men successfully landed on moon and returned safely America
celebrated this event very grandly as they won the cold war. But every Victory is
Titanic, there will be an iceberg to stop it. There are theories which show that
the mission was literally disguised to show the Soviet Union that America had
successfully landed on moon. There are conspiracy theories to prove that this
mission was a fake one and tried to defame America for performing such kind
of acts. Even there was opposition from their own people, as it was a time of
national tension for America because of Vietnam war in 1960s and
discrimination, Racism, Starvation, etc were happening and rather than tackling
the situation, why did American government spend huge loads of money on
these space missions? which were neither beneficial nor helpful for people. This
led to many Civil wars within the country. The people of America fought
against the government, but government was not answering to anyone waited
for the mission to be successful.
Besides these theories The Moon Mission had put its mark in the history and
proved to be one of the greatest missions of humanity.
Later Apollo missions explored the lunar surface extensively, collecting samples
of Moon rocks and installing instruments for research. Apollo 17, the program’s
final lunar flight, took place in 1972. In total, 12 American astronauts walked on
the Moon during six successful lunar-landing missions.

Introduction
At 10:56 P.M. EDT, Sunday, July 20. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, spacecraft
commander of Apollo 11. set foot on the moon. His descent from the lowest
rung of the ladder which was attached to a leg of the lower stage of the Lunar
Module {LM), to the footpad, and then to the surface of earth's only natural
satellite constituted the climax of a national effort that began in 1961. It was an
effort that involved, at its peak, more than 300,000 people in industry, the
universities and in government.

As he took his epochal step, Armstrong commented "That’s one small step
for a man, one giant leap for Mankind."
But soon the mission was finished people who were in the left wing started
making theories to prove this mission was fake. This urgent mission was
planned to beat Soviet Union in their Space Race. The real objective of Apollo
mission was neither to perform any experiments on moon nor to explore the
lunar surface, rather to win over Soviet Union in the Cold War fought between
Soviet Union and America. This Cold war fought in various stages.

The Space Race

It all began when Soviet Union launching world’s first artificial Satellite
SPUTNIK in 1957. The American government was shocked and immediately
in 1958 America also launched its first satellite EXPLORER and made a
comeback. Later 3 years, the Soviet Union again went ahead by sending a
human YURI GAGARIN into space and successfully bringing him back to
Earth. One week later, President of America, JOHN F. KENNEDY wrote a letter
to vice president(see Figure 1) for discussing how could they beat Soviet Union
in this race. After so much of discussion they came to the point that they will
send a human to moon and bring him back safely as it was the first time that one
country is going to send its astronauts to the moon
and claiming that they will be brought safely to earth.
On 25th May 1961, on his famous speech, he
promised the world that he would send humans to the
moon by the end of this decade and promised to bring

Figure 1 A Picture of Official letter by

john F. Kennedy
 them back to earth safely. For many this was unbelievable announcement as
there was no internet and there no mobiles, no proper Computer Systems and at
that time President was giving this kind of promises. For the next 5 years he
provided $7-$9 billion, in addition funding to space programs.

The Tests
Mere months later, the tests began(see Figure 2).
First, they tested the rockets that would help us to
leave earth atmosphere then they conducted tests on
command module that would resist heat. Then they
tested different Propulsion Systems.
1963 to 1967 many unmanned missions were
conducted.
Apollo Missions
Figure 2 Astronaut testing the space
shuttle in earth orbit.

 Apollo 7 Walter Schirra, Jr. Oct. 11–22, 1968 Walter Schirra, Jr. ,
Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham.

 Apollo 8 William Anders Dec. 21–27, 1968 first to fly around

the Moon
 Apollo 9 James McDivitt March 3–13, 1969 test of Lunar Module
in Earth orbit
 Apollo 10 Thomas Stafford May 18–26, 1969 rehearsal for first
Moon landing John Young, Eugene Cernan
*Astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee were killed on Jan. 27, 1967, in a
test for the first Apollo mission. This mission was originally called Apollo 204 but was
redesignated Apollo 1 as a tribute to the astronauts. Numbering of the Apollo missions began
with the fourth subsequent uncrewed test flight, Apollo 4. Apollo 5 and 6 were also uncrewed
flights. There was no Apollo 2 or 3.

In every 2- or 3-months NASA was testing a space rocket and

finally, on 16th July 1969 Apollo 11 was launched.
Apollo 11
Three Astronauts(see figure 3.1)were part of
the mission-
 Neil Armstrong, commander
 Michael Collins, pilot of Command
module.
 Buzz Aldrin, pilot of Lunar Module.
Figure 3.1 Picture of three Astronauts; left is Neil
The spacecraft carrying these cosmonauts had Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin

three main parts-

 Command Module
 Service Module
 Lunar Module
They aimed to detach Lunar module and have it on the moon and to return, the
LM gad to be relaunched and would have to docked to the CM to enable the
astronauts to return to earth. To launch this spacecraft a SATURN -V5 rocket
was used with a wight of 3 million Kg. The rocket
was launched, and it reached the orbit in less than
10min from launch. They made about 1.5
revolutions around the Earth and asked permission
from mission control for Trans-Lunar injection i.e.,
taking the rocket from earth’s orbit to moon’s orbit.
Figure 3.2 Docking of LM with CM
These events took just
after 5 hours of the launch. Finally, on 19th July,
after travelling for almost 400,000 km, The Apollo
spacecraft reached the moon’s orbit and it was
supposed to split into 2, and the CM separated
Figure 3.3 Path of SATURN-V5 from LM. Michael Collins was in CM which was
nicknamed Columbia and the LM was nicknamed Eagle, and Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin were there in LM. In this mission the CM had to be stay in
Moon’s Orbit and LM was going to land on the moon.
Around 8pm Eagle was going to land on the moon. Exactly, at
8:10 pm alarms went off (1201 and 1202 alarms). They
figured out that 1202 was a warning. At about 150m Neil Figure3.4 Shot of Moon
Surface from LM
Armstrong took control over LM because he noticed some huge rocks on the
lunar surface.
“100 feet, 3-1/2 down, 9 forward” said Buzz Aldrin and the fuel was
remaining 5%. Seeing the fuel percentage, the mission control initiated a
countdown of 60sec to decide whether to land the module or abort the mission.
After a critical situation they managed to land on the lunar surface successfully
and reported through a radio “Houston Uh…Tranquillity base here…the
Eagle as landed”. The Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquillity in Site 2 at 0
degrees, 41 minutes, 15 seconds north latitude and 23 degrees, 26 minutes east
longitude. This was about four miles downrange from the predicted touchdown
point and occurred almost one-and-a-half minutes earlier than scheduled.
While Neil Armstrong was descending on the moon
surface the footage was going live on the television
and over 650 million people were watching the epic
scene in the world’s history.
While they were coming out of the LM, they collided
with a circuit board and one part came out and they
were unaware of that as there is vacuum so no sound
could travel. But that was a very important part to
Figure 3.5 Picture of Buzz Aldrin
relaunch the LM to go back to earth.
Unaware of that they both came out of the LM and for the next 2.5 hours the
setup several scientific instruments on moon, took so many photos(see Figure
3.5). They collected over 23 kg of moon stones, and they finally
placed an American Flag, Commemorative medallions(see
figure 4) bearing the names of the three Apollo 1 astronauts
who lost their lives in a launch pad fire, and two cosmonauts
who also died in accidents, were left on the moon's surface. A Figure 4 A Picture of
one-and-a-half inch silicon disk, containing micro miniaturized Medallion

goodwill messages from 73 countries, and the names of

congressional and NASA leaders, also stayed behind.
Now The LM must return to earth therefore, Eagle must reattach with Columbia
and to upwards they need propulsion and to start that propulsion they need to
turn on the switch, and that was the part which they lost while descending.
Therefore, Buzz Aldrin used a metal pen to close the circuit and finally they
managed to turn on the propulsion. The LM reattached to the CM and finally
they left the lunar orbit.
While returning to the earth’s atmosphere the plan was to
detach the service module from CM and the service module
would break down by itself due to atmosphere, but this to
happen the SM had to be sent away from the CM so that the
Figure 5 Picture of Astronauts landing
broken pieces would not affect the CM, for that NASA has on Pacific Ocean
installed thruster on SM, but at that time the Thrusters
were not working. It was a miracle that none of the
pieces did not hit the CM and all of them safely landed
on Pacific Ocean.
The risk of astronauts dying on this mission was so
high that, the US president Nixon had prepared an
alternate(see Figure 7) in case these astronauts were
indeed killed.
When they returned to earth the three Astronauts were
Quarantined to check that they didn’t carry any pathogens.
Finally, America had won the Space Race…Really?
Figure 6 A picture of letter
by US President Nixon

Discussion and Methodology

The Theories
Did America really win the space race, or it was a simulation? As we all know
that 1970 was the end of the decade and the mission was coincidentally
completed in 1969. Had America Simulated the whole mission like a film and
covered that it was a real one? Our approach involved many different sources
like real-time interviews, and websites such as NASAs official and Wikipedia,
which are the only authentic sources over internet, etc. Our methodology was to
obtain all the theories from internet and answer then using facts and evidence
provided officially over internet and various reports.
There are lot of conspiracy theories to prove that this mission was a simulation
like –

1. Why was the Flag Fluttering?

The flag which they carried was not a normal one, it had a horizontal and
a vertical rod as NASA knew that moon does not

Figure8 Picture of astronaut

planting the Flag
 have any gravity so to keep the flag still, they placed a horizontal rod
made up of springs on the upper edge, but while installing they found it
difficult to hold the horizontal rod straight. Therefore, ripples were
produced on the flag and the flag seemed to be fluttering and noticeable
point is that you can see flag fluttering in those videos where astronauts
are holding and moving it not in those in which the flag was remained
still. Therefore, it is just a rumour that the flag was fluttering.
Below we provide a link to show how flag was planted.

2. There were no stars in those photos.

As stated by NASA, this was because the

lunar surface very reflective and the spacesuits
were also very reflective. The sunlight which
was falling on the lunar surface was reflected
by both spacesuits and the surface and the
cameras at that time there was no concept of
Figure 7 Edited Picture over internet just
HDR was not able to capture those stars at the indicating no stars.
back. Even if you compare with today’s
modern cameras are not capable of taking accurate photos in those
reflective situations as we all know that the camera sensor captures all the
light available in the surroundings and evenly distribute it, but at that time
this cutting-edge tech didn’t came into play and therefore were not able to
take picture of stats which are not the subject.

3. Inconsistency of shadows

People often argue that why the shadows are so

inconsistent. They think that as they are making a
simulation so there was not a single source of
light, and as we know there are lot of light sources
available all over the house therefore, they assume
that it was filmed not a real one. But the fact is that
Figure 8 Indicating as the lunar surface and spacesuits were too
inconsistency of Shadows.
reflective, therefore they also acted as point of
source of light and light scattered in almost all directions, therefore
objects shadows were inconsistent.
We can see in Figure 8 how reflective is the Lunar surface and how these
shadows are scattered. This picture was released in CBS news channel
 pointing that it was a Hoax. But later it was proved wrong, and footage
was an Authentic One.

4. How were pictures taken with no camera?

This question came out when there was no camera

seen in Neil Armstrong’s hand in the reflection of
Buzz Aldrin’s photograph.
How can someone take photos without cameras? The
simple answer for this
Figure 9 Picture of
question is that the cameras Buzz Aldrin
were installed on their spacesuits
itself.
They were also installed on some places of LM
also therefore people were able to see when Neil
Armstrong was landing. In NASA’s official
mission report, they clearly stated that they
installed plethora of cameras all over the LM and CM
Figure 10 picture
showing Camera is and even on spacesuits too so that every information is
installed on
spacesuits.
carried to the mission control, and they van instruct the
astronauts what they need to do next in their mission.

The Conclusion
Although, the moon landing was a historical
mission in our mankind but there was criticism
from everywhere around the world even before
the moon landing was going to be executed.
Not only this there was a backlash from their people
Figuretoo as there
11 screenshot were
of CNBC soPaper
News

many problems going throughout the country

like poverty, racism, income inequality and none less the Anti-War protest
going against the US government. Although, having these many issues in
the country why they are spending huge loads of money on these space
programs, just win in their cold war.
These many allegations were pointed on American government but there
were several hidden befits of this Moon mission.
  The Advancement is Computer Chips, as there was a need for high
end technology, therefore companies made many ICs, and the
revolutionary one was SOC means system on chip, only one chip
controls the entire system. This reduced the size of computers.
 Nearly 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of lunar material was brought
back to Earth through the Apollo space program.

 The Apollo space program employed almost half a million

individuals.

 The scientific experiments carried on moon helped to study the

nature of lunar surface and the results were helpful for future moon
missions like CHANDRAYAN, etc.

Dec 1972 was the last moon mission by NASA and after
that it never ever tried to go to the moon, it was because
of the public demand as there were so many problems
going internally in America and people protested and
government must listen to people words.
According to CBS news, they posted in their website(see Figure 12 screenshot of CBS news website
Figure 12) that in 2025 they will again launch a moon mission and this time
they will send women too.
Yet, we all know that ‘the TITANIC may be huge and iconic, but everyone just
remembers its SINKING’. Therefore, Apollo 11 has all its mark in mankind but
there will be existing an iceberg to oppose it.
After seeing all this evidence and we can conclude that THIS WAS A
LEGITIMATE MISSION.

Recommendations
As we concluded that this mission was a legitimate one and NASA proved its
standing in the world and even promised that it would send women astronauts
too to these space missions.
But even today so many people believe that, even students believe that it was
faked at that time, according to voanews still 6% Americans believe that this
mission was fake and for them we think this report will be an answer for them
because we proved every aspect of doubts regarding this mission.
For more information, if you are interested in this mission then we would
recommend to go through the mission report by NASA in the link given below.
Apollo 11 Mission Report (nasa.gov)
There is a summarized version of timelines of this
mission, which is compiled on this QR. Using this we can
easily summarize the entire report.

References
NASA, Apollo 11 Mission Overview | NASA
Brittanica, Apollo | History, Missions, Significance, &
Facts | Britannica
Wikipedia, Apollo 11 - Wikipedia
YouTube, The Apollo 11 Moon Landing Mystery |
Neil Armstrong | Dhruv Rathee - YouTube
Figure 13 Interview of NASA Official
YouTube, Flag, https://youtu.be/ymwE1sNm82Y
YouTube, CBS HOAX, https://youtu.be/jB32lAjqUFo
Interview Michael Collins, https://youtu.be/SWVgUwMTHEU