How can anyone be stupid enough to disbelieve the moon landings?

Question

1.400,000 people worked on the American space program – how would you fool all of them?
2.Yes, a Hollywood could be done in the desert, but how could anyone interface this production into the systems so as to fool 300 experienced controllers in the two massive control centers, and over the course of 7 years of Apollo.
3.Why haven’t we been back to the moon? People who naively believe the hoaxers, have no idea what it took to get men safely to the moon. The 360 foot tall Saturn V rocket was the only rocket ever built to take men beyond Earth’s orbit. When budget cuts hit, the Saturn V was never needed any more
4.It took years and billions of dollars to develop the LEM – Lunar Lander. If the hoax believers took the time to read the history, and understand the problems, they would see that to land men safely on a solid body, with no air (all landings on Earth use the air – parachutes into the ocean and the Shuttle becomes an airplane), took a massive amount of development.

Hoax believers - go back to the source of your information (of course you can't) and ask them to answer question 2 above. How would you fool 300 controllers, working 3 shifts a day over 7 years of Apollo that what they were watching on their monitors, radars, computers, instruments was real? How would could you get the "Hollywood" into their systems without any of these specialists knowing?

If you think about it, it is so illogical, that I don't know why I am bothering.

I just think it is a massive insult to all the thousands who put their lives, marriages and well being on the line to make happen the most exciting adventure of all time.

And people disbelieve it based on one silly and totally unscientific Fox TV presentation, designed to appeal to young and naive conspiracy lovers.

No, people are not entitled to uninformed opinion.

Muslim fundamentalists believe that you and I are evil and so it is glorious to kill us, because that's what their imams put into their heads.

3000 innocent people died in the Twin Towers because of people with uninformed opinions.

It may not seem that serious to believe the moon landings a hoax, but it is just another conspiracy and cover up morsel for the nutters like Timothy McVeigh to feed on - people who see evil where there aint none, but are willing to commit evil deeds based on their uninformed opinions.

Answer 1

1) The "moon race" was an extension of the cold war. It was mostly about national prestige. We got there first and achieved our primary objective. There was some good science: surveys, measurements, sample collection. But it was mostly about being there first. Once we achieved our primary objective, there was no political will to go back. There still isn't. Perhaps, if we discover He3 or something else valuable, there will be.

2) In 1972, there was a politically motivated burglary of a hotel room in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. There were only about six or eight people who knew about it. However, those people, including Richard M. Nixon, the President of the United States, failed to keep that burglary a secret. It exploded into a scandal that drove the President and a number of others from office.

If six or eight people couldn't keep a hotel room burglary a secret, then how could literally thousands of people could have kept their mouths shut about six faked moon landings? Not just one moon landing, but six of them!

3) Even if NASA and other government agencies could have faked the six moon landings well enough to fool the general public, they could NOT have fooled the space agency or military intelligence types in the USSR. The Soviets were just dying to beat us. If the landings were faked, the Soviets would have re-engineered their N-1 booster and landed on the moon just to prove what liars Americans are. Why didn't they? Because the landings were real and the Soviets knew it.

Answer 2

Ok, ok....I will admit it....I "questioned" the whole moon landing thing because I started reading about conspiracy theories and it seemed to make sense at first. I guess it is such a magnificent feat of science and technology, it almost seems too good to be true.

I have been "set straight" and I know it was real.

But to answer your question....people can be stupid because there are other people out there selling their own theories just as hard as you are trying to disprove them. Some people want to learn more on their own and explore all options.

You just have to hope that people investigate all the facts and don't be persuaded so easily.

Answer 3

Dude - I feel your pain!

Just remember that these are the same people who think astrology is valid, and who believe the email that says that Mars will look as big as the Moon. Trying to get them to see reason in just a few paragraphs is as fruitful as arguing politics or religion. They've long since made up their mind that science is bunk. The only hope we have is to convince those that are still on the fence about these things - the folks you are targeting are too far gone. In my opinion, at least.

Answer 4

There is NO evidence that points "the other way." There are lots of people who don't understand physics and optics making claims about purported errors.

On a similar tack, is it even remotely believable that the thousands of engineers and scientists would have made a bone-headed error such as allowing the wind to blow on their fake Moon set? Or that they would have somehow needed to label Moon rocks but neglected to hide the lables and then allowed a picture of them to be taken at all? Or that the same engineers and scientists would make mistakes about optics, or perspective, or film exposure?

Answer 5

Think of it this way. Where you present at NASA during the moon landings? Did you personally see the rockets come and go? Did you actually see the moon rocks and prove it's from the moon? Do you believe everything the TV shows you?
Unless you can answer these questions, you can see why people can be skeptical, especially when our government has lied to us from time to time. Also, why have'nt the Russians gone to the moon? They have the technology and the rockets. Perhaps they know that the radiation outside our own Van Allen Belts is too extreme for humans too endure.
Many questions, few answers. The controversies keep on going. It's how the governments like it.

Answer 6

I don't think it is a question of stupid or not. There is just a lot of evidence that points in the other direction from the scenario you describe here. Are people stupid to even question the possibility of a different series of events? What was more important at the time was beating the Soviet Union in a competition--not landing on the moon--so it is conceivable that the whole thing was staged, to make sure that we got there first (and make the rest of the world believe so, too).

I am not saying I agree with that point of view, but I certainly don't think people are STUPID for embracing it.

Answer 7

Huh? you do not have self belief in Santa Claus? !! Oh! you're asserting that Santa Claus landed on the Moon? P.S. do no longer forget approximately, hundreds of people might could shop the secret for some years.

Answer 8

People believe what they want to believe. It doesn't matter how much scientific, mathmatical, or physical evidence you have, some people want to believe in conspiracies. A few optical illusions and misunderstood physical properties are enough to tip the scales of logic to the illogical for some people.

There is a growing population of people who do not believe in evolution and the fossilized history of earth's past.

It is strange that people say they need proof for them to believe in things, yet if you give them overwelming proof with one question unanswered, they will say they do not believe and believe in something which has no proof and questions everywhere.

Answer 9

The only thing that gave me any doubts was when NASA said it was going back to the moon in 13 years. It tooks less than 10 years back in the 60's when computers were as powerful as pocket calculators. Why would it take 13 years with the enormous advances in technology?

Answer 10

The FOX special speculating that Apollo was fake is just one example of how TV makes billions of dollars per year off the stupidity of the public.