Simulation of India's lunar mission falsely shared as proof of 'Moon landing hoax'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on September 6, 2023 at 07:13
Updated on September 13, 2023 at 09:34
3 min read
By Kate TAN, AFP Australia

A graphic appearing to show an animated yellow rocket touching down on the Moon has been shared in multiple social media posts that falsely claim it proves India's historic lunar landing was faked. But scientists told AFP the graphic represents data received from Chandrayaan-3 to track its journey. It landed near the Moon's south pole on August 23 and India's space agency has been publishing images and data transmitted from the lunar surface.

A clip featuring the graphic was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, on August 25 -- two days after India became the first nation to land a craft near the Moon's south pole.

It also shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi and staff from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) celebrating the successful landing of the unmanned Chandrayaan-3, which means "Mooncraft" in Sanskrit.

"History was made by India. If the original moon landing was in doubt because it looked fake this this clears it all up for me," reads the caption to the clip followed by hashtags that say "moonlanding" and "moonlandinghoax".

Screenshot of the false post, captured September 1, 2023

Similar posts saying the graphic shows Chandrayaan-3's Moon landing was not real have been shared in Australia and the United States.

"Space may be the final frontier but it's made in a Bollywood basement," reads one Facebook post in an apparent reference to a widely debunked conspiracy theory alleging images of the Moon landing that NASA broadcast in July 1969 were shot in a Hollywood studio.

Comments on the posts also suggest some users were misled.

"They did not land on the MOON!! IT IS FAKE!!!! Enough of this nonsense!!!" one comment reads.

Another says: "Congrats India!! A very good faking and copying skills."

Spacecraft simulation

A scientist from ISRO told AFP the animated yellow rocket is a simulation of the Moon landing.

"We track the spacecraft throughout its journey through simulators and data received by us," he said on August 31.

The ISRO had invited social media users to watch Chandrayaan-3's journey three days before its scheduled lunar landing (archived link).

The 43:25 mark of the agency's live YouTube broadcast shows the animation alongside actual data transmitted by Chandrayaan-3 (archived link).

Andrew Dempster, director of the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research, separately refuted the claims.

"It's clearly a simulation to show the state of the spacecraft," he told AFP on September 5.

"There is no way there could be a real camera taking that shot."

Pictures showing the same simulation are also available in AFP's archive here and here.

Following India's historic feat, US space agency NASA published images of the Chandrayann-3 landing site on its website here (archived link).

India began exploring the Moon's surface with a rover a day after the successful touchdown near the largely unexplored south pole. The six-wheeled solar-powered rover will amble around the relatively unmapped region and transmit images and scientific data over its two-week lifespan.

Images and footage taken by the rover have been published on ISRO's official X account here, here and here (archived links here, here and here).

On August 29, the space agency said an instrument onboard the rover confirmed the presence of sulphur on the lunar south pole.

The analysis also confirmed the presence of aluminium, calcium, iron, chromium and titanium on the lunar surface, it added, with additional measurements showing the presence of manganese, silicon and oxygen.

AFP has previously debunked misinformation that has swirled around the Chandrayaan-3 mission here, here and here.

September 13, 2023 Updated to add links from ISRO and NASA

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