Do You Think The Moon Landing Was A Hoax? If Not, Why Haven't We Gone Back?

Answer 1

Yes because it was sure easy to fool people back in the day, they'd believe anything. Everyone thought the Earth was under attack when War of the Worlds came out on the radio - I mean come on.

Answer 2

1) I don't think it was a hoax. (a) There were many thousands of engineers, scientists, contractors and others involved, who would have known if it were a hoax, because of their direct involvement in the planning and execution. I find it inconceivable that ALL of those thousands of people would have managed to keep silent for 40 years. (b) SOMETHING is reflecting the laser beams that we occasionally shoot at the moon. I really think it must be the LRRR modules that the astronauts left there--it certainly isn't lunar soil! (c) I've read many pieces of so-called "evidence" for a hoax, on various websites and books. Most of them are completely ridiculous and display a complete ignorance of basic science; and I haven't seen a single one that doesn't have a simple explanation. If it's a hoax, why can't all those conspiracy theorists at least come up with some decent evidence? Or at least something that would cast a little doubt?

2) I grew up during the "space race." Getting to the moon was much more a political goal than a scientific one. After the Apollo program ended, after we had "won" the race, the country was in an economic recession, and it became very difficult to convince taxpayers to spend all those billions of dollars to continue such grand missions. It is NOT the case that we had "found out everything we wanted to know." We found out only a millionth of what we wanted to know. If it had been up to the scientists, we'd have made 600 trips to the moon instead of 6. But it's a huge national endeavor, and the nation was no longer behind it.

Answer 3

The Moon landings were NOT hoaxes. Anyone who believes that they were should peruse a rebuttal website, such as the one listed as my source. Many of these are written by professional scientists who use concrete evidence to disprove the hoax argument, which is based mostly on flawed common sense. In fact, among other things, these sites conclusively explain that the waving flag (law of conservation of momentum) and the starless background of space (basic rules of photography) are actually proof that the landings were real, even though these two points are used by conspiracy theorists who claim that the landings were hoaxes. It should tell you something that no reputable scientist claims that the Moon landings were fake. The Moon landings even left reflectors on the Moon that astronomers use to measure the distance to the Moon.

We went to the Moon to beat the Soviets there. After that, the US saw no compelling reason to continue to spend so much money to send people to the Moon. There were more Apollo missions planned, but they were scrapped because of budget cuts. Taxpayers don't like to pay more taxes to support programs that don't yield concrete benefits. It's not as though we've tried and failed to return to the Moon - we've sent probes to it, but no manned missions. America simply hasn't cared to send anyone back to the Moon. It could if it wanted to, just as it did when it was locked in the Cold War with the USSR.

And if the Moon landings were hoaxes (which they absolutely, most certainly were not), the government could just film a false Moon landing every year if it wanted to. So the fact that we haven't gone back is not evidence in favor of a hoax.

Conspiracy theorists: when you vote this a 'bad answer', I would ask that you at least submit a rebuttal and try to come up with a logical explanation for evidence in favor of the lunar landings. Simply declaring a conspiracy and ignoring rock-solid evidence does not prove your case.

Answer 4

There are plans to return to the Moon and then go to Mars. Whether this will happen or not remains to be seen. Any trip to the moon will take a HUGE effort and cost billions and billions of dollars. It is not a light undertaking, which is why we haven't been back. BTW, the Apollo astronauts left mirrors on the moon, which still today researchers can bounce lasers off of. This is the best proof we have that the moon landings were NOT a hoax.

Answer 5

We have been there. Why haven't we been back yet? Cost at the time conflicted with social and Vietnam War spending. Once the Saturn production line was shut down and the manufacturing of the other hardware was stopped, no politician had the nerve to go again. Politics in general at the time also prevented our going back,read up on the late 60's/eraly70's for more detail.

Thank Congress, politicians, and an apathetic American Public for killing Apollos 18,19,20, the Apollo Applications Project, giving us a crappy space station in the Skylab, & giving us a shuttle with capabilites far inferior to its original design. Typical political short-sightedness, now copied by wallstreet. Let's kill a project that has most of its R&D costs covered already. Let's kill production lines we've paid for.

If the moon landings were a hoax the Russians would surely have exposed us. It was a cold war battle and they would have jumped at the opportunity to discredit America. You,(Russians) can/could determine from what distance a radio signal came from. You/They could also monitor to see if those signals came from somewhere else and were relayed from some device on the moon in an attempt to fake the transmissions. The Russians looked for that but all they found was that original transmissions came from the moon. Read Seregy Korolev's, (the father of theRussian space program), autobiography for more detail, and to learn how eager the Russians were to say we didn't go to the moon.

We do plan to go back, but let us see what the politicians and the fickle American public actually support. In any case definitive proof should be provided in 2011. The Japanese, who do launch a good deal of their own satellites and space probes are sending a probe equipped with detailed radar, infrared and photographic mapping capabilities to the moon and placing it in a circumlunar orbit. The cameras will be able to see the American machines, flags and footprints.

Doubt they could see that much detail? Well then look at satellite pictures of the Earth. Look at Google Earth pictures which only have about 5% of the resolution of military satellites. On Google Earth you can easily see buildings, and cars, sometimes even people.

Those who say it was a hoax need to ignore the crazy conspiracy theories and think for themselves. As for Neil's comments, on the moon he was heard to say, " that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". In his interviews he has stated that what he actually said was, "that's one small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind".

The word, A, was not heard and can not be heard on tapes of the event. Maybe you can't hear it because he didn't say what he wanted to, or maybe it didn't get picked up or was blurred. In either case, he certainly did not make the changes in verbiage asserted by Corgiesrule. He made the distinction to emphasize that for the individual one step is insignificant, but for the species that particular step ushered in a new era.

I agree with Rick B. He is right there is a lot more to learn and do. The decisions were more political than scientific. Also the alleged proof that we faked the landings, are utter falsehoods, completely ignorant of facts, physics, and science.

Stephanie B. should learn history. Nixon's issues and Watergate/dirty tricks by CRP, began no earlier than 71/72 depending on whose account you give more credence to. The first landing was in 69 2 1/2 to 3 years prior to his problems, and 13 years after the initiation of Project Apollo.

Answer 6

We have gone back, many times. Its just not as important because the "Moon Landing" was the first one. It was never a hoax.

Answer 7

One reason if any we would WANT to go back to the moon is for a moon base. It would be useful for experimenting with living on a diffrent planet. It would be of course much more ideal than mars due to its proximity. We would learn how to do things, and once we learned how to do it all correctly, its off to mars.

Nasa's next manned space project is ORION. If everything goes on schedule, we would first use it like the shuttle, just going into orbit around Eath. Eventually, we are supposed to land on the moon with it, and look into landing on Mars by 2020. I find 2020 and the speed at which they think this thing is going to be finished completely ridiculous...

Answer 8

I think it's impossible to have faked the moon landing. For one thing, the Russians would have loved to uncover such a hoax, and they could have easily done it if it were. They could watch the landing and most of the process with their own technology. They did not have to take our word for it, like Ethiopia did.

Answer 9

The moon landings were real. I am down with some conspiracy theroies but that one is just ridiculous.

There's been no good reason to go back as we'd learned all we really needed to learn about the moon. It's a desolate dustball with nothing to offer, except as a staging area for further exploration of the solar system. If we go back, it will be as a first step toward Mars.

Answer 10

Another grand conspiracy theory. The moon landing was real. We did go back on several occasions. NASA probably believes they have as much information about the moon as they need so they have been involved in other projects such as deep space probes, Mars landings, and the International Space Station.

Answer 11

It was not a hoax! We have gone back but we don't anymore because they think that we have learned everything there is to learn about the moon.