Conspiracy Theories: Apollo 18 - NASA Mission Paid In Full But Never Launched?

If one removes the opening and ending credits from the film Apollo 18 (2011), what remains is an audio and video record of a US Lunar Mission that looks admirably lifelike and factual.

In this no-frills and non-credited form, the film would likely fool heads of foreign states, school children, and adults that have not viewed much real outer space footage. Cut through with actual black and white Apollo Program video records, the only hint of acting is in the person of the lesser known (to Americans) Canadian and UK actors, along with some color in the newer footage.

Take away the credits, and some clever program director could play the film as a TV news item that would frighten as many people as Orsen Welles's historic radio production of War of the Worlds . It's that plausible. During the showing I attended, audience members were asking one another several times if this film was based on a real event.

The public might be ready to speak out against the end of the beloved US Space Shuttle Program with allegations of NASA and the White House mishandling a secret final lunar mission. This is a reason that Apollo 18 may seem totally real at first. Not only was the mission a secret, but the two astronauts assigned were not briefed on the actual mission goal.

This recalls to Americans the injustices done to African Americans in the Tuskegee Experiments and to the men in the American West that were exposed without their knowledge to the radiation of nuclear testing in the mid-20th Century. Americans also point to evidence of a long-standing UFO cover up that even some of our nation's astronauts feel is real.

Space Shuttle Challenger exploded for the want of a 16 cent o-ring, sending its crew to death in an instant and we were shocked. Space Shuttle Columbia's crew died, because we had no system to repair a broken shuttle tile on the outer hull and we cried.

"When will it ever end?" the People may ask. It has become commonplace to distrust the American Government in the realm of its citizens' welfare. Conspiracy theories are easier to accept in the afterglow of these injustices.

In 1960s' USSR, Nuclear Submarine K-19 lost much of a full crew to radiation leakage, having no protective gear or replacement parts to suffice -- Its captain complained of having parts too cheaply made by just 2 kopeks (equivalent of pennies in that decade). What happened to the Russians in early space exploration that we do not know?

In suborbital flight, John Glenn saw what he felt was evidence of extraterrestrial life - large firefly type lights outside his capsule window. Buzz Aldrin maintains that he has seen UFOs, even on the lunar surface. Neil Armstrong maintains he saw something on the moon as well.

Audio tapes published on Youtube of Neil Armstrong and Houston Mission Control Center during the Apollo 11 Mission may be discounted by some voices, but are one basis for the premise in Apollo 18 . It appears that if Apollo 11 had followed the course plotted by NASA, the LEM would have crashed into the wall or edge of a crater. This surely would have killed the crew or stranded them on the surface. Course corrections were made and Armstrong and Aldrin landed safely.

As the two astronauts began walking around the LEM and somewhat away from it, they discovered a structure that they felt was a ship of some type. Houston repeatedly tells them to walk away from the object and that NASA already knew of it. Armstrong and Aldrin received no further explanation.

A rumor formulated that the Russian Space Agency had sent a man to the lunar surface before the Americans ever reached the moon. The story continued that while America was beaten in the Space Race, the Russian craft had crashed and killed the Cosmonaut inside it. True or false, the story makes a good film premise.

Interestingly, Apollo 11's Michael Collins wrote in a children's book that while he felt no fear or dread flying around the moon many times while his crewmates were on the surface, He also never wanted to return to the moon or to outer space. Indeed, he worked for NASA a bit longer, did other work, and retired to tend to his gardens. He does not discuss space exploration today.

If the Apollo 18 Mission was paid for and abandoned, where did the money go? We will likely never learn that answer.

In the film, we see an empty Russian spacecraft and we see moon rocks that are not very attractive. We hear Houston Control telling an astronaut that he is contaminated and will be left in lunar orbit, which will decay and take him to his death, despite his pleas. Would America do this? Many think that portions of our government would do exactly this.

How much of Apollo 18 is real? We may never know. This is the draw of the movie and I would enjoy seeing it again. Lending great reality to this film is the result of its production made in a partnership of US and Russian companies. It should become a top art film in 2011.

A newer rumor for the early 21st Century is one in which President Barack Obama forbids NASA to perform manned space flight to the moon. The rationale for this is said to be that the US Government needs to go up to the moon's surface, without public knowledge, in order to destroy materials or installations that may be sitting on the moon. This may or may not include a crashed Russian spacecraft, crashed American ships prior to Apollo 11, a Russian Moon Base, bodies, or an Extraterrestrial Outpost.

Apollo 18 speaks of 160 missing Moon Rocks from the Nixon and Ford Administrations, given as gifts to foreign dignitaries from the Apollo 11 and 17 Missions. Indeed, about 160 Moon Rocks are missing, victims of loss or theft.