Among the most prominent hoax theorists carrying Kaysings mantle today are David Percy and Mary Bennet, coauthors of Dark Moon: Apollo and the Whistle Blowers, and Bart Sibrel, who produced the film, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Moon. Sibrel is notorious for a 2002 incident in which he ambushed Apollo 11 lunar-module pilot Buzz Aldrin in an interview and asked him to swear on a Bible that hed been to the moon. The astronaut not only refused, but famously punched Sibrel in the face in front of news cameras after the conspiracy theorist called him a coward, a liar and a thief.

Sibrel and other advocates of the hoax theory maintain websites where photos and videos from the moon landings are pored over to discover new evidence that they were faked.

A Sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Some make the specific charge that footage of the first moonwalk was shot by Stanley Kubrick, acclaimed director of the 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, which won an Academy Award for its special effects. The lack of visible stars in the photographs of the Apollo moon landings is most often cited as proof that the astronauts were actually bounding around a soundstage and not on the surface of the moon.

But scientists, photographers and firm believers in the moon landing have set up websites of their own to debunkpoint by pointthe hoax theories.

Phil Plait, who writes the Bad Astronomy blog for Discover magazine, says the simple explanation for the starless heavens is the extreme brightness of the moons surface, caused by the lunar dawn. The brief exposure times required in these conditions were too fast to register the faint stars on film.

Then theres the infamous photo of a moon rock that appears to have the letter C on it. Moon-landing skeptics say it is a prop marking that was carelessly left visible. But debunkers say the C has been found to be a fiber on the original print that was digitized and reproduced. There is no sign of the C on the original negative.

How Can a Flag Wave on the Airless Moon?

In images from the Apollo missions, the American flag appears to be rippling in the breeze. But hoax believers point out that this is impossible without an atmosphere. They are right. However, a special flagpole was constructed with a telescoping rod along the top to hold the stars and stripes out. The Apollo 11 astronauts werent able to deploy the rod fully, leaving folds in the flag like those in a curtain. On subsequent missions, the astronauts chose to only partially expand the rod because they liked how the flag appeared to be waving.

The Case of the Disappearing Camera Crosshairs

Conspiracy theorists claim the camera crosshairs in many photos disappear as though blocked by objects within the picture. But debunkers point out that the crosshairs always disappear over a bright white object, which causes overexposure and the resulting crosshair fade-out.