On this first day of bombing in Iraq, you have probably forgotten about other pressing matters � for instance, finally getting to the bottom of the truth about Neil Armstrong's historic lunar landing. Lucky for us, astronomically inclined folks such as guest columnist Der Voron have not relented in trying to disseminate the ultimate truth about Armstrong's fantastic voyage by writing articles on this topic and submitting them to the editors and powerless staff writers of alternative newsweeklies. As the Writers of Unsolicited Materials Pertaining to Conspiracy Theories, folks like Der Voron are among the bravest and most creative of our human ilk.

Lunar gravity, discount wheat, and bootmarks: It's all here, folks. Without further ado:

Flights to other planets
By Der Voron

For a period in the early 1990s in Russia (another country claiming to have organized flights to the Moon), the "Moon flights hoax" theory was openly discussed in mass media. But, some time later, the discussions on this subject ended. Why? Perhaps because the Russian Airspace agency began collaboration with NASA and the rules of diplomacy required silencing this subject.

This was the preface, and the main story is ahead...

I here affirm that flights to the Moon, Mars, and other planets and their satellites are impossible with the technology level reached today. Here is why:

Gravitation and time are linked, and time depends on gravitation: the more gravitation, the "faster" time, and vice versa. For example, on the Sun, where gravitation is greater than on the Earth, time "flows" about 30 times faster, while on Mars and on the Moon, vice versa, much slower. This means life processes are slower on the Moon and Mars, which is deadly for Earth organisms.

But this is not the main reason why the flights to the Moon and to Mars, with the use of, are impossible. The combined gravitation is more or less appropriate for the life processes only within 1,000 kilometers from Earth. At longer distances, the gravitation decreases, the time flows much more slowly, and life processes, correspondingly, slow down.

At the distance of 100,000 kilometers from the Earth, time flow will be so slow that life processes will almost stop. The Moon is about 384,000 kilometers far from the Earth and Mars is tens of millions kilometers distant (the flight to the Moon, with today's slow chemicals-based engines, would require several days, and the flight to Mars about one year). The combined gravitation is very small -- at least, for human organisms -- at such distances, and time almost doesn't "flow" there, thus not allowing normal life processes. To fly to such distances, an antigravitation craft would be needed, with the special equipment that produces gravitation.

Thus, so-called flights to the Moon, by both Americans and Russians, also can be considered a hoax. Here are other indications of this:

1) After the "lunar module" landed, astronaut Armstrong stepped out of it, and his boot's sole left the "footprint" near the module. The photograph of this "clear footprint" was circulated worldwide. But footprints can only form on ground when water is present. Without it, sand particles just cannot "glue" together to form more or less clear footprints. But there is no water on the Moon, moreover near the overheated nozzle of an engine, which has just stopped functioning -- after landing. (When clear footprints get formed on "absolutely dry sand" on the Earth let us not forget that on the Earth even crystals contain water, and that sand also contains water, even "absolutely dry"...)

2) According to "Moon videos", slow walking of American astronauts on the Moon almost doesn't differ from walking on the Earth. But lunar gravity is 6 times less than that of the Earth. This means that the astronauts would have to literally leap with every step on the Moon.

3) The strange 1972 agreement between the United States and Soviet Union about wheat supplies to the Soviet Union -- at prices twice lower than market prices, during 20 years. Why? Perhaps this was done in order that the Soviets wouldn't show the world that US Moon flights were hoaxed. (And so the Soviets could fake their own "Moon flights" to imply they had space capacities comparable to those of the U.S., without the fear of being unmasked, in turn, by the US).

Here I have to say that the Soviets made a stupid, for themselves, mistake when they agreed to this. In the 1960s, the Soviets excelled the U.S. in space, and NASA had to invent "Moon flights" to get more Congressional money for financing NASA projects. Yes, the Soviets got cheaper wheat, and faked their own "Moon flights". But perhaps it would have been better for the Soviets not to get the cheap wheat, not to invent a similar success story about the flights to the Moon, but just to unmask NASA's Moon hoax to deprive it of a good part of Congressional money. Why couldn't the Soviet Union buy cheap wheat from say India or South America, and yet cheaper rice from China? Rice and rice bread are not worse than wheat.