Moon Hoax

5 OVAL OFFICE

It was early morning at the White House. Secretary Russell hustled down the long hallway for his meeting in the Oval Office. Unlike himself, he was running late. As he rushed along he was surprised at the number of people already busy working. He figured it must be because of this latest crisis. He approached the president’s secretary sitting outside his office. Seeing it was he she waved him on by. He gave her a frustrated look. “I hate being late to see Bill.” The door to the president’s office was closed. He gave a slight knock as he slowly pushed the door open and walked in.

President Bill Edwards sat behind his desk, intently studying a file on his desk. Across from him sat the head of the CIA, Jack Dawson, and the NASA Administrator, Doug Rose. They both looked up at Steve, but the president never lifted his head. Steve had worked with Jack on many occasions, but had only met Doug a few times. Steve quietly walked to the last remaining leather chair between Doug and Jack and briefly shook both their hands before sitting. The president was focused on what he was reading and it was obvious that what he read disturbed him. The three sat in silence staring at the president. Steve could smell freshly brewed coffee, but did not dare get up. He eventually got Jack’s attention and looked at him with a quizzical look. Jack said nothing, just shrugged and turned back to the president.

Finally the president looked up, breaking the silence with sarcasm. “Glad you could join us, Steve.” The president normally had a great personality. He loved to joke and kid around with his cabinet members, but the president was all business now. Steve knew from his many years working with the man that when Bill was serious, there was no excuse for being late. He said nothing.

All three were there to answer questions regarding the absurd lies put forth by China, and help the president decide what course of action the United States should take. Bill had a press conference scheduled later that day to address these accusations and wanted to be prepared on what America’s response would be as well as questions that would be asked. These three men would be able to supply him with that information.

The president felt betrayed by China, a country he had supported ever since he was elected to office. In fact it was his call to the head of the Olympic committee that kept the Olympics in China after the backlash from the terrible work conditions and brutal treatment of their citizens. The premier of China, Hu Junlong, personally called the president to say thank you, saying his country owed America for helping them keep the Olympics and get the opportunity to show the world what an advanced culture they had become. Now China was making up these bold-faced lies, or were they? The president needed to first make sure there was nothing so top secret it had been hidden from presidents. So Bill turned to Doug, NASA’s chief, and sternly asked, “Is there any truth to what they are stating?”

Doug straightened in his chair and confidently responded, “Absolutely not, Mr. President. We did land on the moon, and we have plenty of proof to discredit whatever they bring forward. I have no idea why they would make such an accusation. They can only lose this fight and ruin their recent good standing among the world.”

The president got up from behind his desk, pen in hand, walked around to the front and leaned back. Looking directly at Doug he asked, “What proof do we exactly have? Can’t we just aim one of our high powered telescopes, like the Hubble, and see some of the hardware left on the moon, and end it right there?”

Doug was now looking up to the president, his neck craned awkwardly. “Unfortunately, the world does not have a telescope powerful enough to see any of the hardware left on the moon.”

The president, surprised to hear this asked, “You’re kidding me! We can see light years away outside our own galaxy, but we can’t see a goddamn car on the moon?”

“That is correct, Mr. President. In fact, it’s as if you were flying in Air Force One and you tried to look down with your naked eye and pin point a grain of sand. Just impossible with the technology we have today.”

“So it sounds like the only way to verify the hardware and footprints is to send a rocket to the moon.”

“That is correct, Mr. President.”

“Unbelievable. And China is the only country to have done that in forty years,” the president said, crossing his arms.

“Not exactly, sir. A few countries in the last ten years have sent unmanned rockets to the moon, like Japan and India. Of course Russia sent the Luna probes up in the ’70s to gather lunar samples, but after that program the moon was ignored for almost twenty years. We sent up probes in the ’90s to determine if there were any ice reserves, but our last rocket to the moon was in 1999. There were no pictures taken on any of those missions or on missions by the other nations to verify the landing sites. There just hasn’t been a need to do this since no country ever questioned us landing before.”

“Well, it looks like we have a country questioning us now!” the president said dryly. “China knows what they are doing. They are purposely claiming this now, after we have retired the Shuttle and are years away from having a rocket ready to get men back in space. I hate having to rely on the Russians to fly us into space.”

“I hate relying on Russia too,” responded Doug. “But as you know, due to the budget cuts set up by congress and past administrations, NASA was forced to stop flying the Shuttle to allow for the development of the next generation of manned rockets. Unfortunately SpaceQuest has been behind schedule and has forced us to rely on the Russians. But as you know, many of us at NASA have been very concerned and vocal this gap would exist between when the Shuttle was discontinued and when the next generation of rockets would fly. We all have been nervous counting on private enterprise to prevent this gap.”

“Too bad that decision wasn’t made during my watch,” said the president. “I can’t believe the past administration was comfortable relying on private companies to launch astronauts and supplies to the space station when they were still years away from testing their rockets. I would have extended the Shuttle past 2011 to insure there was an overlap with SpaceQuest’s rockets or whatever commercial firm was used.”

The president turned and walked back around to his chair, not saying a word and sat, in deep thought. The room was quiet for a moment. Bill, in frustration, said to no one in particular, “I still can’t believe there is not an easy way of verifying the hardware left on the moon. If we could just do that, we could end everything right now. Instead we have to rely only on evidence here on Earth, and since China just flew to the moon and claimed they did not see our hardware, they probably now have the world behind them and will only question whatever evidence we bring forward, or say. It’s our word versus theirs.”

Doug responded encouragingly, “Well sir, we are in the process of sending up a lunar orbiter to the moon later this month. It’s called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO. It will be our first mission to the moon since 1999, but unfortunately it is not designed to take detailed pictures of the landing sites. Its mission is to scout the moon and work out the best landing sites for future explorations. That’s why I was hesitant to bring this up. However, we do plan on putting the LRO in an elliptical orbit where it will fly over and take pictures of each one of our landing sites. These pictures are only being done because we need to test the cameras and the project team thought it would be cool taking pictures of each site, kind of a nostalgic thing. But due to the altitude of the LRO and the cameras used, the hardware left will look like specs in the pictures, hardly something we could use to discredit China’s claims. However, I believe we may be able to modify the LRO to take more detailed pictures, but it would probably require a lower orbit with a stronger camera. I will need to discuss this with the project managers to see if we can do this, and do it fast.”

“Well that’s encouraging,” said the president. “I want a report on my desk by tomorrow morning stating if it can be modified.” The president leaned back in his chair. “What other proof do we have to satisfy the world?” There were many hoax proponents saying the moon landings were faked and how they had proof. He never took them seriously, but now one of the leading nations of the world made this claim. This was cause for concern and needed a response. In the file in front of him, one of the items he read was the latest Gallup poll showing millions of Americans believing the moon landings never happened. Americans! He figured the number was much higher outside the United States. With many nations either upset with or jealous of America, it would not take much for the world to go along with China

“The best evidence we have right now, sir, are the moon rocks,” stated Doug.

The president slammed his fist down on his desk, and barked at Doug. “Well how can China say they have similar rocks? Is that possible?”

Doug jumped in his chair, and responded anxiously, “No sir, it is not. If their rocks came from a meteorite as they claim, the rocks would have frictional burns from entering the atmosphere. Obviously our moon rocks were not subjected to such frictional damage since they did not fall to Earth, but instead were carried in our capsule with the astronauts. Any travels they may have encountered were done in the vacuum of space. This alone should be evidence enough. Also, I doubt they have 300 lbs of these rocks. Scientists have searched the world over looking for moon asteroids, and have found only 20 lbs combined. Finding 300 lbs would be very unlikely. The United States does have a small amount of moon rocks that we did get from meteorites, but we are talking about pebbles.”

Bill, sensing he made Doug uncomfortable, leaned back in his chair and questioned him in a calmer voice. “So, then how are we able to prove our rocks came from the moon?”

“First, the moon rocks are over 600 million years older than Earth rocks. Second, the scientific community has never disputed the fact that our rocks were from the moon. Finally, Russia did send up robotic missions to the moon to retrieve samples. They did three of these missions successfully back in the ’70s. The samples brought back were compared to our rocks and proved to be of the same origin and makeup. However, Russia was only able to bring back a total of 11.5 ounces of samples over three missions versus the over 820 lbs we have, that is basically one one-thousandth. So I am very confident the rocks China has will not even compare to ours, and everything should end right there.”

Bill leaned forward on his desk and looked Doug directly in his eyes. “Well I am glad you’re confident, but I’m not. I don’t underestimate the Chinese. They’re up to something. They would not bring these accusations in front of the UN and the whole world unless they knew what they were doing. I feel they have something up their sleeves.”

The president turned and pointed his finger at Secretary Russell. “How could you say the moon landings would be in question if their rocks were similar to ours?”

Steve, shrinking in his chair as the president asked the question, nevertheless responded confidently. “Mr. President, these are outrageous accusations brought by China. At the time, in the UN, I felt we needed to make a strong and confident response to Councilor Chen’s proposal. In fact, listening to Doug now, I feel even better about my response. I too am confident that if the appropriate scientists are selected to compare the rocks, the outcome will be they are not of the same origin.”

Bill disliked Steve’s arrogance and snapped back, “So then why do you think China is making these accusations, if they know they will be proven false?”

“I can not answer that, Mr. President. It’s a mystery to me.”

He shook his head and turned his attention back to Doug. “What about this mirror thing we spoke of?”

“It’s called the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment, or LLRE, and was deployed during our first moon landing,” replied Doug. “It allows us to shoot laser pulses and get reflections back. It is used for many reasons, but one is to get accurate distances to the moon as it orbits the earth. Though it was put there by our astronauts, it could have been deployed by a robotic mission. This will not help us much, but we can not discount the many photographs and videos taken.”

“Possibly,” said the president, “but as you know, for years hoax proponents have said they were done in studios, and though it is tough to prove, it is not cut and dry. So, I would hate to just rely on that.”

Jack had sat quietly the whole meeting. He now interjected, “Mr. President, don’t forget there were hundreds of thousands of people who worked on the moon landing missions. It would be virtually impossible for all to keep quiet if the moon landings were a hoax.”

The president turned and looked at Jack. “Jack, I don’t disagree with you, but China claims there were only a handful of folks who needed to know, and that would be much more believable to the world.” The president took a sip of coffee, thinking to himself, then looked back at Jack. “What is the latest CIA intelligence on China and their space program? Is there anything that might help us on why they might be doing this?”

“Sir, as you have been updated before, our biggest concern is China setting up a ‘Star Wars’ type of weapon in space, similar to what we considered in the ’80s. We know they have been working with a laser company out of the UK, which we feel will be the weapon used. One of our top SID agents visited China’s launch facility recently and reported that China probably tested this laser on their recent trip to the moon. We believe they probably were firing it from their spacecraft at targets selected on the surface, probably on the back side. This would be the only way they could test such a laser in space without the world knowing. If they tested it in Earth’s orbit, we of course would know this and question it to the UN. Unfortunately, I don’t know if this information helps in regards to what’s currently going on.”

“Interesting. You would think there is no connection there, but knowing China, I think there might be. Jack, I want you to stay on top of that, and see what else you can find out regarding the laser and what happened when they went to the moon, and keep me informed.”

“Yes, sir, I will keep you abreast of any new developments,” Jack said.

Doug said, “Bottom-line sir, it comes down to the rocks. This is our best evidence, separate of actually going back to the moon for a visual sighting of the landing sites, which we should be able to do with the orbiter next month.”

“I believe in your press conference you should state this,” proclaimed the secretary. “Say there are many items to prove the landings happened, but the most concrete evidence, other than a visual sighting which we should be able to do soon, are the moon rocks themselves. State we are working with the UN to get some of the top qualified scientists in the world to compare ours to China’s. Say we are confident when the rocks are compared, they will prove to be of different origin.”

President Edwards again leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “Why do I get the feeling we are setting ourselves up?”