Did America really send a man to the moon?

Question

I recently visited the kennedy space centre, and the equipment used for that mission was like somthing from bluepeter, also this computor i'm at now has more power than thiers then, it seem more & more like a fix, why have they never attempted it again, why was the flag fluttering?

Answer 1

Cartman - of course men walked on the moon.

Ignoring all the tosh that the TV programme came up with (which has been shot down in flames so many times now I've lost count) and the fact that some people on here seem to be happy to believe any old rubbish without so much as a cursory look at the evidence, there are three things that clinch it for me.

1. The moon rock that was brought back is different from anything anywhere else on Earth and has been portioned out to so many different universities and research labs that someone by now would have said that the rock was hoaxed.

2. NASA employed thousands of people during the Apollo missions. None of them (other than one or two nut-cases who are trying to make a name or, more likely a bit of fast cash) have said that it was all a hoax. Don't you think that far more people would have come out and said something by now.

3. Last, but absolutely not least, the Apollo missions left an experiment on the surface of the moon that allows an Earth-bound laser to be fired at it and reflected back to Earth so that the distance from Earth to Moon can be measured with extreme accuracy. I believe this measurement is taken with monotonous regularity. How would this be possible unless one of the astronauts set the reflector up on the surface of the moon?

So to answer your questions.

The kit they used may look like it came from Blue Peter, but then so did the ships that first crossed the Pacific or the Atlantic (how about Heyerdahl's balsawood raft Kon-Tiki ?)

Don't get misled by the old computing power routine. It is perfectly possible to achieve many, many things without the aid of a computer. All a computer does is to speed up the processes. We are all losing sight of this fact as we get wrapped up in technology.

Don't know what you mean by never attempted it again. The Apollo missions landed 12 men on the moon - what could be benefited by going again? If you go back to my point 2, the amount of money required for the Apollo missions was colossal - NASA's funding was massively reduced and focus shifted to reusable space craft (the shuttle), and manned satellite stations (SkyLab) as the next step towards exploration further afield.

It has been proved a zillion and one times that the flag "fluttered" because it was wired to make it stand up. As there is no atmosphere on the moon (and therefore no air resistance), once the flag wire was touched or let go it continued to flex backwards and forwards (ie. it fluttered).

We have a tendency to underestimate the capability of previous generations. Thats why we have people who say aliens built the pyramids and space astronauts built Macchu Picchu. Let's (for once) celebrate the ingenuity and undeniable bravery of the men who risked their lives in the pursuit of exploration.

Answer 2

They did go to the Moon Partly to beat the Russians and prove superiority ( so yes a Publicity Stunt as suggested) Why not go back? Well for the first few years it was both a case of Funding and "Been there done that" . Also public interest had waned, viewing figures on US tv for the moon missions fell, which effected the funding. The Next stage for the Moon is a Moonbase, That will be very expensive and until more recent years the Technology was lacking to do it safely. There are now commercial companies wanting to build the first moon base, so we could see a Hotel on the Moon in less than 20 years. There will probably be a fastfood restaurant there. It will also be multi-national. It is possible that Mars colonisation will be launched from the Moon because of a lower gravity

Answer 3

Have you ever heard Neil Armstrong's quotation "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind?" There is incontrovertible print, audio and video evidence that the USA put a man on the Moon.

You are correct that today's desktop computers are more powerful than the computers from the 1960's, but that is not a justification to think that the lunar missions were a hoax.

NASA chooses to spend its budget on other missions such as the Hubble Telescope, the Space Shuttles, the Mars missions and the International Space Station rather than repeating a Moon mission.

Regarding the flag, since there is no atmosphere on the Moon, the flag is in a frame that holds its shape otherwise it would hang limp.

Answer 4

The biggest reason we haven't been back to the moon (after 6 different trips) is economics. The moon missions were incredibly expensive and politicians decided that it would be better to put money into social programs. Also, the direction of the space program shifted to low earth orbiting space stations. The heavy lifting Saturn V rocket was discontinued and money went into the space shuttle program, which does not have the capacity to go as far as the moon. Remember that the moon is about 238,000 miles away and low earth orbit is only a few hundred miles up.

Also, don't forget the near disaster of Apollo 13 where the actual landing was scrubbed because of an explosion in an oxygen supply tank. Those three astronauts almost didn't make it back. Space travel is dangerous!

Answer 5

dont let the power of computers fool you. What can be done with a simple pocket calculator used to require a whole room full of computers to do. At the time of the moon landings (yes I believe they happened) Nasa had rooms full of computers to do the calculations and manage the control systems, calculations and management that can now be done with far smaller systems. As to WHY we haven't been back, yes the danger factor is a big part of it...but a bigger part is justifying the expense plus the budget for NASA has been cut every year for quite a while. When I say cut I mean that the percnetage of increases get smaller every year so that while they may get more moeny this year than they did last year, it isn't as large an increase by percentage as it was for the year before. So while the cost of manopower and equipment goes up, the amount of money they have to spend on it doesn't not rise as fast. IF they coud find a reaonable justification fro returning to the moon, some valid scientific reason, then they would get the funding they need to do so...or perhaps it need to be a joint effort among several countries...THAT would certainly make for an interesting experience.

Answer 6

A lot of the equipment was old and tried . Even at that they were way out on the limb. I sat the tracking console on some of these missions in Goddard ,our computer was so Large that we had 3 computers and they occupied a a room 24 by 24 ft. when we had a failure it was bad. I still used a slide rule for some of the Eng. problems. Most good computers now are giants compared to what we had. We were there .

Answer 7

I too saw the "moon hoax" broadcast and found it to contradict itself at every turn. People who don't believe that the US put men on the moon believe this for the same reason that they believe that any brand name of something is WAY better than the generic...because they were told it on TV and don't have all the information that they need to form thier own opinion. (generic products are usually identical to, and many times even made by the name brand companies, then sold with a store brand label).

Every question raised by the "moon hoax" believers has an easy and scientifically credible answer. Look it up and learn about it, and stop believing everything you see on TV, especially FOX news.

Answer 8

During that same period nuclear weapons were controlled by the same level of computers. They were primitive but they worked.

The trip to the moon was a political decision not a scientific one. We were in competition with the russians so we went to the moon. There has been no real reason to go back yet because we do not have the technology to establish a permenent home on the moon right now. We are working towards that and you will see it happen.

Answer 9

Actually, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" were not the first words spoken on the moon by Armstrong. His first words were, "Go for it, Mr. Smith". Apparently Armstrong grew up in a very poor area and lived in an apartment that had very thin walls. When he was a young boy, he heard his next door neighbors arguing constantly. One night he heard his neighbor trying to get his wife to perform some new things in bed, when he heard the wife say, "Oh, sure I'll do that, I'll do that the day a man walks on the moon".

Answer 10

Yes it all happened. The computers were simple, and all else was crude by today standards. But the moon project could not be forged. There were too many subcontractors, too many employees of NASA to keep this under wraps.
As for the equipment, if you knew what Columbus had to work with you would not believe he could make it across the Atlantic.