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MoonFaker: Moon Rocks Revisited. Episode 9, Apollo Samples vs The Soviet Luna Samples. PART 1

1,854 views · Published 15 June 2011 · 15:07 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: Jarrah White · 2011 · Science & Technology

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Here is an example of a particularly  deceptive tactic often used by propagandists: scapegoating. 

In the past, many propagandists have cited the moon soil samples returned by Russia's unmanned Luna probes as proof for their American counterparts. Claiming the two are exactly the same. This claim was propagated by Phil Plait on the Penn Jillette Radio Show. In response, I suggested that perhaps the Soviets - after many failed attempts to retrieve the lunar soil unmanned - simply scrapped a few grams off a rock NASA loaned them and then past it off as their own.

Phil Webb responded by trying to use me as a fall guy. He alleged that it was *I* who claimed the Russian and American moon samples were identical, and then went on to show that the two are in fact chemically different.

 Webb knows very well that the claim was Phil Plait's, and I was merely responding to the said claim. Throughout his series he used clips that came before, after and during the segment in which I respond to Plait's - pardon the pun - bad astronomy. 

I have since become aware of various other differences in chemistry between the Soviet samples and Apollo samples. Perhaps the most significant: the latter contains ferric iron whereas the former doesn't.

Webb then cites data from the Clementine mission, which shows the titanium oxide it detected was in agreement to that from various Apollo missions. He of course begs the question how NASA knew how much titanium oxide to put in the fake moon samples. This only demonstrates more ignorance on Webb's part. NASA's Surveyors 5, 6 and 7 all detected titanium oxide contents that were comparable to those detected by Clementine. This of course is assuming the data from both probes is legit: being NASA probes, Surveyor and Clementine are both the fox guarding the hen house.

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