Video shows 1965 Australian TV interview with man claiming the moon is made of plasma

Video shows 1965 Australian TV interview with man claiming the moon is made of plasma

Video shows 1965 Australian TV interview with man claiming the moon is made of plasma

(Reuters) - Social media users are sharing a video of an excerpt from an archival interview with a man who claims the moon is made of plasma and that moon landing attempts would fail for that reason. The man’s identity remains unclear, and he offers no evidence to support his theory in the interview – which dates to 1965, four years before the first manned moon landing.

Examples of the posts can be seen (here) and (here)

The text in one post reads: “An actual scientist explains to an NBC reporter why it’s impossible to land on the moon. This interview is no longer on their website.”

The clip shows an interview recorded by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) with a man identified as “Prof. R. Foster.”

ABC posted the full-length interview on its Facebook page (here ) in April 2019 and its YouTube channel (here ) in May 2019.

In the circulating clip, Foster describes his theory that “the moon is not a piece of rock but it is plasma, a plasma phenomenon, a cosmic plasma.”

When ABC reporter Bob Sanders says that Russians and Americans are thinking of landing men on the moon, Foster replies: “Oh, well that will never happen. Not on the moon. On Mars, on Venus and other planets, yes. But the moon is definitely, as I assert, a plasma.”

The ABC report does not mention Foster’s scientific credentials, and the YouTube video description explains that the network has been “unable to confirm Mr Foster’s identity” or “to find any documentation of his work.”

VERDICT

Misleading. The video shows a 1965 Australian television interview with a man who theorizes that the moon is made of plasma and that landing on it would be impossible.