Skip to content
From the High Desert book cover

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Thumbnail for November 27, 2002: Apollo Moon Hoax - Marcus Allen

November 27, 2002: Apollo Moon Hoax - Marcus Allen

Nov 27, 2002
2h 52m
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell welcomes Marcus Allen, British publisher of Nexus Magazine, for a detailed examination of whether the Apollo moon landings were genuine manned missions. Allen argues that while machines likely reached the lunar surface, the Van Allen radiation belts pose a serious obstacle to human survival during transit. He walks through radiation exposure levels, noting astronauts would have absorbed 15 to 20 REM in each direction and that an M-class solar flare during Apollo 16 would have delivered approximately 900 REM, a lethal dose.

Allen also raises questions about the Apollo photography, pointing out that Kodak Ektachrome transparency film would show visible fogging at radiation levels far below what astronauts reportedly encountered, yet the returned photographs are remarkably pristine. He notes that no lead shielding or protective containers for the film were carried aboard due to strict weight limitations on the spacecraft.

Art pushes back throughout the conversation, pressing Allen on why the Soviet Union never exposed a hoax and whether protective measures could have been taken. Allen responds by citing Bernard Lovell of Jodrell Bank, who reported the Russians themselves refused to send cosmonauts beyond the radiation belts until safe return could be guaranteed.

Key Moments

  1. Why is the Apollo film so clean?: Marcus Allen pivots from biology to photography: radiation fogs film, yet Apollo's published photos are 'brilliant.' He argues NASA took no special shielding precautions for the cameras.

  2. REM dosage primer: Allen walks Art through radiation exposure scales - 0.5 REM background, 5 REM annual nuclear-worker limit, 35 REM nausea, 500+ REM fatal - to estimate what Apollo crews would have absorbed.

  3. The marked moon-rock samples: Allen claims labs were sent rocks pre-labeled 'moon rock,' 'Columbia River,' and 'Hawaii' rather than blind samples - and that the few grams distributed couldn't constitute a real comparative test.

  4. The low-Earth-orbit hoax scenario: Allen lays out his preferred explanation: Saturn V launches really happened, but the crewed capsule stayed in low Earth orbit while pre-filmed simulation footage filled the eight-day mission.

  5. Ed Mitchell: 'more like a dream than reality': Art recounts asking Apollo 14 moonwalker Edgar Mitchell about his lunar experience and getting back the unsettling answer that the time he spent on the moon feels more like a dream than reality.