Why did NASA loose the original moon landing tapes??

Question

How could the most promenent figure of our scientific community loose the most important event in our history?

Answer 1

It is a sad commentary on how little the nation values that great accomplishment. It also gives you some hint as to why we did not continue sending missions to the Moon or resume them later. People just don't care! :-(

Answer 2

The current thinking is that they were borrowed from NASA by the Smithsonian and then loaned by the Smithsonian to someone else without proper record keeping. The real answer is that NASA (and the Smithsonian) are run by humans -- flawed, fallible, tired, unlucky, normal humans.

The good news is that some other tapes were found in Australia at Curtin University. (One of NASA's tracking stations is in Australia.)
http://www.geotimes.org/current/WebExtra110606.html

And, to those who hi-jacked this question, for their own purposes, consider this ...

1) Twelve 12 American astronauts have walked on the moon.

Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin
Apollo 12: Pete Conrad & Alan Bean
Apollo 13: << failed to land on the moon >>
Apollo 14: Alan Shepard & Edgar (Ed) Mitchell
Apollo 15: David Scott & James Irwin
Apollo 16: John Young & Charles Duke
Apollo 17: Eugene (Gene) Cernan & Harrison Schmidt


2) Why haven't we been back?

a) American astronauts visited the moon on six occasions.

b) The "moon race" was an extension of the cold war. It was mostly about national prestige. We got there first and achieved our primary objective. There was some good science: surveys, measurements, sample collection. But it was mostly about being there first. Once we achieved our primary objective, there was no political will to go back. There still isn't. Perhaps, if we discover He3 or something else valuable, there will be.

c) I used to travel to Crested Butte, Colorado every year to ski. Because I don't go anymore, does it mean that I never went?


3) What about the Van Allen radiation belts? Wouldn't it have killed the astronauts?

The existence of the Van Allen radiation belts postulated in the 1940s by Nicholas Christofilos. Their existence was confirmed in *1958* by the Explorer I satellite launched by the USA.

The radiation in the Van Allen radiation belts is not particularly strong. You would have to hang out there for a week or so in order to get radiation sickness. And, because the radiation is not particularly strong, a few millimeters of metal is all that is required for protection. "An object satellite shielded by 3 mm of aluminum will receive about 2500 rem (25 Sv) per *year*."

"In practice, Apollo astronauts who travelled to the moon spent very little time in the belts and received a harmless dose. [6]. Nevertheless NASA deliberately timed Apollo launches, and used lunar transfer orbits that only skirted the edge of the belt over the equator to minimise the radiation." When the astronauts returned to Earth, their dosimeters showed that they had received about as much radiation as a couple of medical X-rays.


4) The U.S. government scammed everyone?

In 1972, there was a politically motivated burglary of a hotel room in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. There were only about six or eight people who knew about it. However, those people, including Richard M. Nixon, the President of the United States, failed to keep that burglary a secret. It exploded into a scandal that drove the President and a number of others from office.

If six or eight people couldn't keep a hotel room burglary a secret, then how could literally thousands of people could have kept their mouths shut about six faked moon landings? Not just one moon landing, but six of them!


5) What about the USSR?

Even if NASA and other government agencies could have faked the six moon landings well enough to fool the general public, they could NOT have fooled the space agency or military intelligence types in the USSR. The Soviets were just dying to beat us. If the landings were faked, the Soviets would have re-engineered their N-1 booster and landed on the moon just to prove what liars Americans are. Why didn't they? Because the landings were real and the Soviets knew it.


6) Why does the flag shake? Where are the stars?

Take a look at the first two websites listed below. They deal well with all of the technical questions.


7) Finally, please tell us what you would accept as definitive evidence that the six moon landings were real. Is there anything?

Answer 3

I saw this documentary on TV once. It said that we DID land on the moon, but the famous footage was faked. Here's why:

The earth has a protective atmospheric layer that shields its surface from solar radiation. In outer space, astronauts rely on their spacecraft & spacesuits to protect them The moon has a very thin atmosphere that doesn't protect it from radiation.

Camera film is very sensitive to radiation. That's why putting a film camera into the old scanners at the airport would ruin the film. That's exactly what happened to the film used to capture the footage on the moon. Ruined by radiation.

It was the TV event of the century. NASA HAD to produce something. So they made the film in a studio. The documentary I saw showed the tell-tale signs of studio work: multiple shadows, lights reflected off the astronauts' visors even though the sun was behind them, etc.

I'm not 100% convinced, but I thought the documentary made sense. If it's true, then why did NASA lose the tapes? It was a cover-up, plain and simple, but the lie isn't as big as some conspiracy theorists would claim.

Answer 4

Well if an art collector can put his elbow through a $130 million Picasso anything is possible,

NASA is a quasi government department - so the can misfile anything.

It happens to individuals as well. There is no photo of Hilary on top of Everest because he didn't ask Tenzing if he could use a camera before they got there.

Answer 5

i do no longer discover it suspicious. The digital makeover of the (low) high quality replica nevertheless accessible is a bad exchange for having the originals, yet it extremely is all there is. yet remember, it is barely the Apollo 11 tapes that are lost. Apollo 12, 14, 15, sixteen, and 17 tapes are nevertheless accessible. and that they are lots bigger high quality, extremely 15-17 that are in shade.

Answer 6

Because the tapes were stolen by the folks who then started all the websites and conspiracy theories that the U.S. never landed on the moon.

Answer 7

Redster needs to get off the caffeine. How many millions of times have we heard that pile of bull!!

Answer 8

they lost it because it wasn't real America has never been to the moon that's why you never see the stars don't you watch the discover channel it's just another thing we as a country can say we did first here is some pics in sources you see those pics the last few ones has shadows how is that possible there is no sun up there that crap was made in a studio

Answer 9

Because they found evidence that the Earth was being observed from the Moon, It was'nt a "HUMAN" observing us. Scarey huh ?

Answer 10

In any bureaucracy, you will find a bunch of idiots.