History
or Hoax?
A Web Quest by Catherine
Wissehr
May 2, 2001
Introduction / Task / Resources / Process
/ Evaluation / Conclusion
Introduction
On
October 4, 1957, Russia stunned the world by launching Sputnik 1, the first
spacecraft to orbit the earth. Not to be outdone by the Russians, the United
States, led by President John F. Kennedy, vowed to be the first country
to land a man on the moon. The space race was on!
Our
key to the space race was the Apollo program, a series of launches aimed
at landing a manned spacecraft on the moon by the end of the following
decade. In the beginning, the Apollo program had many catastrophic failures,
from the development of the Saturn rocket to the fiery deaths of the crew
of Apollo 1 on the launchpad. Despite overwhelming odds, the United States
persisted and on July 20, 1969, Neil Arnstrong became the first man to
set foot on the moon. Or was he?
Task
There
is a growing segment of the American population that believes we never
made it to the moon. They believe instead that the U.S. government, in
order to outdo their Russian adversaries and win the space race, set up
an elaborate hoax on the American people and the rest of the world by staging
the entire moon landing. Your task is to review the arguments and evidence
on both sides of this issue and come to a conclusion. Did we land men on
the moon, or has the world been tricked by a conspiracy aimed at making
us only believe we did?
Process
You
are part or a special investigative team, hand-picked because of your expertise
in areas that can be applied to the hoax issue. You will review the arguments
on both sides of this issue, write a short press release about your conclusions,
then present your findings to the Senate Investigating Committee in a panel
discussion. In this panel discussion, you will support your findings with
evidence from your investigation. However, you will need to be aware of
the arguments for the opposing position and be ready to counteract them.
Be prepared to answer questions from the Senate Investigating Committee
and other interested individuals.
Your
team will consist of five individual "experts". You will conduct research
on this issue via the Internet, then meet to discuss your findings. Your
team must come to an agreement whether the Apollo moon landings were actual
historical events or the result of a hoax. Be able to support your position
based on your research. The more information you gather, the stronger your
arguments will be.
Your
investigative team will consist of the following people:
Public
Relations Coordinator
- is informed on all aspects of the
investigation,
writes the press release (with input from other team members), and moderates
the panel discussion.
Astronomer
- is knowledgeable about the moon and its features,
stars,
and other astronomical phenomenon.
Rocket
scientist
- is knowledgeable about space travel in
general,
and the Apollo program in particular, guidance and navigation systems,
and the Saturn rocket.
Computer
expert
- is familiar with computer development and
the
role of computers in navigation systems.
Mission
specialist
- is familiar with aspects of the investigation
not
covered by the other experts.
Resources
You
will need to review the following sites for information on the Apollo missions,
navigation systems, Van Allen radiation belts, as well as arguments on
both sides of the hoax issue.
N.A.S.A.
http://www.zyworld.com/nasa/1.htm
Were the Moon Landings Faked?
http://www.mohammedi.freeserve.co.uk/moonshots.html
Faked Moon Landings?
http://%3A%2f%2Fpirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu%2F%7Ejscotti%2FNOT_faked%2F
Faked Moon Landings?
More Faked Moon Landings
http://www.ews.uicu.edu/~akapadia/moon.html
A Funny Thing Happened on
the Way to the Moon
Liberty Exposure – NASA and
the Moon
http://www.webaxs.net/~noel/moon.htm
Bad Astronomy
http://badastronomy.combad/tv/foxapollo.html
Non-Faked Moon Landings!
The Apollo Moon Landings:
Were They All a Hoax?
http://www.redzero.demon.co.uk/moonhoax/
Apollo 30th Anniversary
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/ap11ann/Introduction.htm
Was the Apollo Moon Landing
a Hoax?
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmoonhoax.html
Some sites you may want to
visit for additional information are:
Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
http://www.hqnasa.gov/alsj/frame.html
Van Allen Belts
http://lasp.colorado.edu/strv/vanallen_strv.html
Van Allen Radiation Belts
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0850404.html
The Radiation Belts
http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/wradbelt.html
Guidance, Navigation and Control
http://www.apollosaturn.com/Lmnr/gn.htm
Animated Superimposed Photos
Evaluation
Evaluation
for this project will be based on the following:
Group agreement
on position (fact or hoax)5 points
Exploration
of web sites15 points
Press release
Clearly
states position10 points
Gives
supporting reasons based on findings20
points
Proper
sentence structure, punctuation, etc.10
points
Panel discussion
Clearly
states position10 points
Position
supported with evidence30 points
Group participation
Based
on teacher’s viewpoint10 points
Based
on fellow team members’ viewpoint10
points
Total
points possible120 points
Conclusion
Congratulations!
You have learned a lot about NASA and the Apollo lunar missions! Hopefully,
you have been given some food for thought and have developed you own opinion
as to whether the missions were real, based on scientific investigation
rather than sensationalism. It is still up to you to decide for yourself
if we did, indeed, land on the lunar surface in 1969. More importantly,
when will we return?
Teacher
page
According
to some sources, as many as 20% of Americans have doubts as to whether
Americans actually landed on the moon. Many believe that in order to upstage
the Russians and win the cold war, an elaborate hoax was perpetrated on
the American people and, indeed, the world.
It has often
been rumored that the hoax was staged at "Area 51", the top secret government
stronghold in the New Mexico desert. Proponents of the hoax theory maintain
this stance due mainly to the top secret classification of this area.