Whether they remember or not, most Pattaya City Expat Club (PCEC) members were around when the first moon landing took place fifty years ago. Maybe they remember being outside, looking up, trying to imagine the 2 astronauts and their lunar vehicle parked there on the Moon. Some members also may be familiar with conspiracy theories that allege the Moon landing was faked. Others reaction was “What?!!” as this was the main theme of the PCEC’s speaker at the Sunday, July 28 meeting.
Needless to say, it was different and not the usual type of topic presented at the PCEC meetings. The speaker asked that in publicizing his talk he not be referred to by name, so for this article, he is referred to by his initials LL. He pointed out that the views he expressed in his presentation were his own and do not reflect the official position of the University where he is a tenured professor. Likewise, the PCEC always begin their meetings by stating that their speakers’ views, services, or products are not endorsed by the PCEC, but are presented for their members and guests’ information, education, or entertainment,
LL has degrees in Engineering and Mathematics from universities in the USA and Moscow. His topic was entitled, ‘My life as a (suspected) KGB spy,’ but said he does not claim to be a double agent. He also mentioned that his parents worked on the Russian space program. His presentation focused on his belief that the USA’s lunar landing some 50 years ago was a hoax and never happened.
He has inventions in the area of artificial vision devices and over 30 publications in pure and applied mathematics and engineering. He worked for several years as a summer faculty at NASA and as a NASA contractor for their projects in the areas of artificial neural networks. Even though he worked for NASA and admires it greatly as an organization, he has concluded that the landing was faked.
Some doubters of the “hoax” theory wonder how it could happen with so many people involved in the project. As a response to these, LL said most technical work was done by contractors with few technical people directly working for NASA involved. Many made proposals or inventions that they really did not expect would be used by NASA and he believes a lot of money was wasted on many of these projects.
He noted that the USA claimed their rocket was 2-1/2 times more powerful than Russia’s, but there was no documentation to support that. Further, other supporting evidence was frequently not available. LL said his father designed the landing system for the Russian space ship and he said precision landing technology was missing from the American design.
His primary question for the validity of the landing is, why has America not gone back, after 50 years, if it had been a success? The Wright brothers made the first flight in 1908. It took only 6 years for major improvements to be made. LL stated the Chinese lunar rover found no evidence of the American moon landing. Had the photo lighting been staged? He stated that both USA and USSR sent test animals on most earth orbital flights. Suspiciously, for the lunar landing there was no testing, which he considers a reckless decision and further evidence to support his views. He also questioned the landing since there was a waving of the flag when there is no wind on the moon. LL was also critical of the American education system. He suggested more than 90% of US technology is created by foreigners who do not have American citizenship or security clearance.
Subsequent to his presentation, many questions were raised and comments made by members of the audience. For those interested in reading more about the various hoax theories and their rebuttals, the information can be found on Wikipedia at URL, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories .
The meeting concluded with the usual announcement of upcoming events and the Open Forum, where questions were asked and answered about expat living in Thailand. For more information about the Pattaya City Expats Club, visit their website at http://pattayacityexpatsclub.com/ .
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