by Dave Wheeler
Here in America, we put all of our eggs into NASA’s basket when it comes to space exploration. However, should we trust that basket to begin with? Many conspiracy theorists, and regular citizens, have no interest in trusting the government at all. If that’s the case, then why do we trust our government funded space program?
One conspiracy through the years that NASA could have played a role in is Project Horizon. In 2014, the National Security Archive released documents on the actual Project Horizon. This program was “a secret project started in 1959 to study the possibility of setting up a permanent base on the Moon”. This project would have successfully put a Lunar Base on the Moon by 1966. This project would have had mankind on the surface of the moon before July of 1969 when Neil Armstrong took his first steps.
Project Horizon was formed by a group at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) in June of 1959. Wernher von Braun, who was the head of ABMA, started the project. Does the name sound familiar? It should. Von Braun was the brains behind the Saturn Rockets that launched man to the moon with the Apollo program for NASA.
Plans for this project called for 147 early Saturn A-class rocket launches to launch spacecraft components for assembly in low Earth orbit through the use of a space station. The space station would have used a rocket third stage, just as Skylab did in the 1970’s. The project called for a lunar landing- and-return vehicle that would have shuttled up to 16 astronauts at a time to the base and back. This would have been a much bigger moon launch than the Apollo space capsule, which could only hold three astronauts. So did the government pull this off without telling anyone?
“The Army insisted that there were no known technical barriers to establishing a manned lunar base and believed that Project Horizon “should be a special project having authority and priority similar to the Manhattan Project in World War II.” After all, if America had built the atomic bomb, there was no reason that it could not put a handful of soldiers on the moon.”
The U.S. government could have received the funding once the general public became alarmed after the launch of Sputnik. However, other political issues arrived at the time. The war in Vietnam took away any sort of funding that would have been handed down to Project Horizon. Project Horizon may have been ahead of its time. It never got passed the initial stages. Well, that’s what the government tells us at least.
Conspiracy theorists believe that the Moon missions with NASA on Apollo were just a cover-up to get this project to the Moon. While we watched Neil Armstrong’s first steps, in the background somewhere on the surface of the moon installation of a permanent base was going on while the public remained unaware. Why would the general public need to know anyways? If there was any threat of war, this base could come in handy. Imagine all that we could learn about space travel and colonization if we truly built this establishment.
Remember this too: the operation of the base itself would be rather cheap:
As for the base itself, the scientists and technicians who took part in Project Horizon suggested that natural “holes” or “caves” could be covered and sealed with pressure bags to create living space on the moon. This sort of construction also had the attraction of lessening the danger from meteorites and alleviating temperature extremes on the lunar surface. As for power, it would be provided by solar or nuclear energy. Oxygen and water could be extracted from the natural environment of the moon. Military personnel stationed on the moon would wear space suits and carry special weapons and equipment developed expressly for moon-use.”
So is there a hidden base on the Moon still in operation today? Or did we truly leave the Moon behind in 1972 with Apollo 17? You be the judge.
Along with working in radio, Dave Wheeler has been into the paranormal world for at least 7 years. He’s a member of the New York Shadow Chasers Paranormal Team, and a practicing Psychic/Medium for the past 5 years. He provides readings and insight for free on Reddit on several boards including BoneAndStone, and find him on Twitter.
Image via NASA free use