Asteroid watcher also monitors lunar landing hoax theories

Jim Scotti takes lunar landing conspiracy theories personally because he took the Apollo missions and Apollo 11 seriously when he was growing up. 

“We use two telescopes on Kitt Peak to survey for and observe asteroids, especially Near-Earth Asteroids that might one day hit Earth,” Scotti said recently while vacationing on Kauai. “I'm also interested in studying comets and the inter-relationships between asteroids and comets. For example, we believe that some asteroids that orbit among and beyond the outer planets called Centaurs, Scattered Disk Objects and Trans-Neptunian Objects are the likely source of the short-period comets and I'd like to understand how those objects evolve to be the comets we see in the inner solar system.” 

Cool job, but he came to our attention through his “The Moon Landings Were Not Faked” website (http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/NOT_faked/).

We posed a few questions to him about the website and the moon landing hoax theories. 

SCENE: I see from the website that your interest in space is both vocation and avocation, and that you are especially interested in the Apollo missions. Why Apollo in particular?

JIM SCOTTI: I grew up watching early manned spaceflight, and in particular the Apollo landings on the Moon. I became totally fascinated with the details of Apollo, from the rockets and spacecraft to the procedures used on the Moon to the participants in and around Mission Control. If you haven't yet, you should check out the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (ALSJ), the greatest website in the Universe:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/frame.html

SCENE: How did Apollo 11 affect you?

JS: I was not quite 9 when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. My Dad was in the Coast
Guard and we were living in Sault Ste. Marie Michigan at the time. We
visited friends in the afternoon and watched (really just listened) to the
landing. That night, I got to stay up late for the first time and watched
the whole moonwalk on an old Zenith B&W TV. I wasn't sure if the poor image
quality was due to the TV or the broadcast from a quarter million miles. I
was totally enthralled by the landings and watched as much of all the rest of
the landings as the networks would broadcast.   

I don't remember much about what the rest of my family thought at the time. My sister was too young. I'm sure they were watching along with me. As you can tell, watching Apollo had a huge affect on me. It kindled an interest in science (along with a few other things like Star Trek). Not sure if I would have gotten so interested in science without Apollo. 

SCENE: When and how did you first learn of the lunar landing conspiracy theories?

JS: I remember reading a newspaper story at the time of Apollo 17 about an old geezer who was interviewed after watching the Saturn V liftoff in person. He claimed it was all faked. But the more serious "modern" hoax theories I think I probably started hearing about in the 1980s, though I paid little attention to it at first.

SCENE: What was it that prompted you to respond with the website, and when did that happen? Are the hoax allegations a slap in the face to all scientists and science, and you were just one of those to slap back?

JS: I was tired of seeing the hoax theories go unchallenged and after seeing quite a few web pages making such silly claims, I picked one of them that was fairly representative of the ensemble and built my page around it.   

I do find the hoax claims to be insulting to the history of Apollo and all that it accomplished, especially when I see just how silly and easily debunked the claims are. I also remember what I was like as a teenager. As I got more and more into science, I looked at everything I could get my hands on including UFO, Bermuda Triangle and Von Daniken books in the library. Luckily I also found Cosmic Connections and many other science books, so I was writing the web page in part for kids like I was who might just be getting into science and haven't been exposed yet to much critical thinking and might easily be affected by that kind of thing. Giving an opposing view with relatively easy explanations seemed very important.

SCENE: Once you refute the conspiracy theorists in public, does that draw you
deeper into their world? Did you find yourself spending more time debunking
the hoax theories than you expected?

JS: No. I spent a fair amount of time on each of my pages and then have tweaked
them as I get comments or additional questions. I try and answer all the
e-mails I get, even the hostile ones. I probably get 1 a week on average and
it doesn't take too much time to respond (unless I get a more involved one
like yours ;-)). I enjoy responding to reasonable questions and think it is
important for folks to see calm and logical analysis.

SCENE: Did you ever get the feeling that some people just want people to
 believe in hoaxes and conspiracies because it sells? I'm thinking of the
 Fox special you mention on your website, where they went into detail about
 the hoax theories, and the other side is left to a not very effective NASA
 flack.

JS: I think there are some who are trying to sell their conspiracy, but many of
the sites are just in it for the hoax. I call those people "true believers"
and they won't accept any evidence you provide, just because. They believe
in the hoax religiously and take it on faith that the hoax is legit. The
guys trying to make a buck are just going to ignore you and try and get more
hits on their product. The problem with those websites and the FOX program
in particular is that they do not give any alternatives to their crackpot
theories and explanations. To the uninitiated, those theories and explanations
can almost sound reasonable if you don't look into them.

SCENE: Did you see the MythBusters debunk the debunkers by duplicating key points and proving the science behind the apparent anomalies conspiracy theorists pointed to as proof that the landing was shot in a studio?

JS: I haven't seen the MythBusters show, but I heard about it and have seen some
stills and interviews. I really need to see it. There was an NGS program a
few years ago that was similarly damning to the hoaxers and even talked to
several of them. For example Ralph Rene, who claims to be a "self-taught
Engineer," gave several demonstrations to "prove" that the landings had to
be faked. My favorite was his demonstration of how the lunar gloves could
not have been real. He rigged up a standard rubber garden glove in a vacuum
chamber and showed how stiff the glove gets when a vacuum is pulled on the
compartment. I was laughing loudly as I watched the TV. Spacesuit
gloves are certainly not standard rubber garden gloves despite their similar
appearance. And presumably, NASA was stupid enough to not be
able to figure out how to design and build a workable glove as far as he
could tell. My conclusion: "Self-taught Engineer" Ralph Rene had a lousy
Engineering teacher.

SCENE: Any sign that the impending 40th anniversary stirred the remaining hoaxers up again like kooks on a full moon night?

JS: I haven't seen much activity. Judging by e-mail rate, I'd say the current activity in general is maybe about twice what it has been on average lately which could be the impending anniversary or it may be a hoax program airing somewhere on some cable channel.

SCENE: Your site seems to have been inactive for a couple of years. Is that because your side has won, the debunkers of Apollo 11 have been debunked by you and others? Case closed?

JS: I wouldn't call it inactive. I haven't had to update it in a long time, but I do get plenty of e-mails from it. I added another page a couple years ago and have occasionally thought about other related pages. But I do think I've covered most of the major claims and other hoax debunkers have done similar web pages, so there isn't much need for more without a very different angle.

SCENE: And now, our final question before you get back to vactioning: Planning anything special to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing?

JS: I'm going to be participating in a 40th anniversary celebration on July 18 at
LPL, where I work. Not sure what I'll do yet, though I may give a slide show
of some sort. I have already helped pick out panoramas from the ALSJ that
will be put up in our building. Otherwise, maybe I'll spend some extra time
perusing the ALSJ for Apollo 11.