Ending the Moon Hoax Conspiracy?

Question

In the 1960's and 70's, NASA sent 6 manned missions to the moon. This is absolute fact, but as is hideously apparent on these forums, tabloid reporting has convinced far too many people that the Moon Landings never happened.

Sadly, no telescope on Earth, and not even the Hubble have resolutions high enough to allow viewing of the artifacts left on the moon. Is there anything orbiting the moon that can actually take pictures of the landing sites? If so, is there any way to convince the people operating the orbiters to photograph or record the Apollo sites so we can shut these conspiracy mongers up once and for all?

I already know about the reflectors on the moon. A laser is bounced off of them regularly to check the moon's exact distance from the earth and how fast it is moving away. I'm also well aware of the likely futility of convincing people about something they've already made their minds up about, and to heck with the facts.

But none of that is what I'm asking. Please don't ignore the question.

As for why waste time on these idiots... To paraphrase "All that is necessary for the triumph of ignorance is that knowledgeable people do nothing."

Answer 1

there is not an orbitter at the moon yet japan will be launching one sometime though, when it gets to the moon then it should be able to show the landing sites.. not that that will help, the hoax believers will just say that nasa is paying off the japanese (because nasa has so much money to throw at a country as poor as japan of course).

i for one will think that it is cool to see the landing sites again, i mean they haven't been seen for quite a while, i wonder if anything has changed with them.

sadly nothing will shut up the conspiracy nutcases, even the hardest evidence and the most logical arguments fail in the face of utter ignorance.

Answer 2

So the Hubble Telescope can peer into the details of star systems far, far away and yet not be able to view and resolve the details of the artifacts of past lunar expeditions left on the surface of a nearby satellite, the Moon? Maybe, i'll need 3 thinking caps to solve this conundrum. tee hee hee

Besides, a scientific expedition should be considered valid only if another group of people corroborated the claims made by previous expeditionists. I have always been wondering how come the Russians weren't able to send their cosmonauts for a mission that would just orbit around the Moon, when they were the first to send the first man and woman in Earth orbit. All of their Moon missions were accomplished by ROBOTS, so they claim. If they did not endeavor to send humans on an orbital expedition to the Moon (much less a Moon landing expedition), who else were there to validate the achievements of NASA?

Anyway, I am looking forward to a Moon landing expedition going to be launched by the Chinese (as the rumor from the grapevine goes), with the aid from Japan and Russia, to finally lay to rest all these lingering doubts about the NASA lunar expeditions in the 60s & 70s. Of course, it will surely help if the Hubble telescope, and probably another one to serve as backup, can provide full view of this future mission for all the world to see.

But of course, it will be the greatest thrill of my life if someday I can finally be a lunar tourist, as well. I'd be able to see the footprints left by Neil Armstrong myself, gaze at and appreciate the lunar sky, and most importantly, make simple experiments to determine how fast perturbed lunar dirt falls back to the lunar grounds.

tee hee hee
:-)

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/apollo_hoax/message/128
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cyclesi/message/9417

Answer 3

One day in the not too distance future there will be vacation tours to the moon visiting the landing sites. There is no atmosphere on the moon and the sites will look exactly like they did the day they landed including all the footprints.

That will shut up the doubters.

This reminds me of when people did not believe the Wright brothers flew until they saw a plane.

Answer 4

I wish there was an easy way to end the Moon hoax conspiracy. But stupid people will always believe in stupid things in complete disregard to scientific fact and even common sense and logic. Just look at Jason.
The Van Allen belt gave the astronauts radiation doses equivalent of about a chest x-ray. Ever had an x-ray Jason? Did you survive? There are NO questions about the moonlandings that are unanswered. They have all been answered many times right here. Often by me. And frankly it is getting real tiresome.

Answer 5

>>"If so, is there any way to convince the people operating the orbiters to photograph or record the Apollo sites so we can shut these conspiracy mongers up once and for all?"<<

And you think whoever made up that conspiracy theory won't try to call the pictures "fake"?

I guess one way to stop them is suing them for publishing missleading information, and damaging not only the image of NASA, but of the US.

Answer 6

Even if high-resolution images of each and every Apollo lunar landing site were presented to these morons, they'd just insist that they were fakes.

The *only* way to prove to these people that we actually landed men on the moon would be to take them there and let them see for themselves. Even then, I suspect many of them wouldn't change their idiotic stories at all.

Answer 7

Why bother? If people want to be morons, let them be morons. We haven't managed to make it clear after almost 150 years that evolution is a science. People believe that sugar makes kids hyper despite scientific evidence to the contrary. (Kids fed artificially sweetened drinks were judged to be "hyper from the sugar" when their parents were told they'd received sugar, normal when their parents were told they had not.) People believe there are UFOs at Area 51, when the reality is far more fascinating.

But how's this. There are radio reflectors on the Moon that were placed there by astronauts. You can bounce a signal off them.

Answer 8

Unfortunately, this question belongs more in psychology rather than Astronomy/Space. No amount of evidence is going to sway such a person.

The literature seems to point to "knowing the truth," and the comfort people find in that, rather than facts or logic governing these kind of conspiracy theories. There's plenty of psychological research on the subject.

Answer 9

I was there at the launch of Apollo 11
Why build a rocket with 160,000,000 horse power and then not go anywhere with it.

Answer 10

When people believe conspiracy's in this way, you can never have enough evidence. Just look at the Kennedy assassination.