A film expert wonders about the pictures of the moon rover

Apollo 16 was the fifth mission of the Apollo Project, landing on the Moon on April 21, 1972. The landing site was Descartes Heights.

The crew consisted of John W. Young (commander), and Charles Moss “Charlie” Duke, Jr. (Lunar lander pilot) and Thomas K. Mattingly (command module pilot).

The Lunar Module was used for this mission and, according to NASA, was “extensively tested” on the Moon. A maximum speed of 17.7 kilometers per hour was achieved.

The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) is an electric vehicle designed by NASA during the Apollo program for use on the Moon. In Dutch, this type of rover is known as a moon rover. During the last three Apollo missions in the 1970s, spacecraft were taken and left on the Moon's surface after being used.

However, not everyone is convinced that NASA actually sent humans to the moon. Vsevolod Yakubovich asks questions when viewing NASA images. According to him, it is a miniature radio-controlled (RC) model with a doll instead of a human.

Yakubovich was director of photography at Russia's famous Mosfilm Studios, perhaps the oldest film studios in Europe. He taught motor process technology. As a highly experienced cinematographer in the field of special effects, he has participated in filming more than 200 films.

Yakubovich came to the conclusion that the photos from the lunar module, in his opinion, looked as if they were taken in a large photo studio. It seems to him that the rover is a radio-controlled model that simulates a lunar module traveling on the surface of the Moon.

The expert bases his expert opinion mainly on the movements of the doll in the cart.

In addition, he (like other researchers) concludes that the foreground differs from the background in all Apollo moon photographs, perhaps due to a mismatch between the front projection (where it was deployed) or studio foreground and mountain backgrounds.

Short excerpt here: