Did we (USA) ever really go to the moon?

Question

I am not a conspiracy theorist but a friend recently made a good point:
We don't really have any "proof" that we ever made it to the moon, well at least nothing that couldn't be spoofed.

I do know that the Russians have tried multiple times to land on the moon but have never made it there.

I just think its kind of funny that nobody else has ever been there, and we have NOT returned to the moon since the first time.

The Japanese are sending a satellite equiped with full HD imaging capabilities to take pictures of the moon; and supposedly they are going to try and take pictures of the "landing site!"

I personally believe we have been to the moon; but is there any real "proof'? and I would love to know how You feel and what You think!

Thanks! :)

Atalanta 1996! Ya I went! unless I was under some kind of Hypnosis! :)


***I THINK WE WENT TO THE MOON***
I am just wondering; well this is a better way to put it: How come nobody (not even Russia or japan) has ever been to the moon (except for us) and we haven't been back!

****I DO NOT DOUBT THAT WE WENT TO THE MOON; I JUST WOULD LIKE PEOPLES OPINIONS AND PROOF!*****

yes the russians have landed with PROBES but NOT PEOPLE!!!

Answer 1

I lost the link, but I read a GREAT essay on how the lunar samples brought back from the Moon are the proof. He was a geology professor, and quite a ball-buster if some of his other college-related writing which I then read are any indication....

He obtained samples of the lunar rocks, and showed pictures of his microscopic slides, and pointed out why these rocks could NOT have come from the Earth, and that furthermore, they came from the Moon. I'm no geologist, so I have to take his word for it too, but if people who know what they're looking at see the samples and go "yup - this came from the Moon" then that's good enough for me.

Also - the radio transmission source could NOT have been Earth orbit (as the hoax theorists claim). There were other countries involved in receiving the signals, as well as unfriendly nations such as the USSR who could receive them and clearly tell that they were originating at the Moon.

An earth-orbiting source would cross the sky in a matter of minutes, whereas the Moon stays up for hours and hours....

No, they could not have orbited a communications satellite around the Moon to fake this - the responses from radio show the round trip latency, and the extra leg from the earth to the moon would add another 2 seconds to the response times, which would be pretty apparent as well. And if the CSM were orbiting Earth and relaying its communications via a Moon-orbiting satellite, then it would be out of communication with the satellite for periods of about 45 minutes out of every 90. (whenever it went behind the Earth from the Moon's point of view)

This was not a fake, and I hope you convince whoever you're having this discussion with.

Answer 2

>>We don't really have any "proof" that we ever made it to the moon, well at least nothing that couldn't be spoofed.<<

Sorry, this is just utterly and completely wrong.

The lunar samples brought back by Apollo (all 880lb of them) include rock, soil and core tube samples that have been verified as non-terrestrial in origin and are definitely not meteorites. They were therefore collected from the Moon and brought back, and there is no evidence whatsoever of any technology that could accomplish this automatically. The Russian sample return missions brought back a few ounces of soil, and no rocks.

The TV transmissions show very clearly that the astronauts are walking around in a low gravity environment in a vacuum (provided you know what you're looking at), which simply could not be faked. Conspiracy theorists will show you short clips that, when sped up, look 'normal' and say it's proof it was filmed here, but they don't show you the other hour of uninterrupted footage that shows things they can't explain that way.

There is a vast mass of evidence in favour of Apollo, and the sheer weight of it speaks volumes. On the other hand, conspiracy arguments make very little sense, are based often on pure ignorance, even of what evidence is actually available (I've lost count of the number of times I've had people say 'there are no pictures of xyz and there should be, so that's proof it was faked', only to spend 30 seconds on Google and produce those 'non-existent' pictures from a publicly available source). There is not a single credible argument in favour of a hoax.

>>I just think its kind of funny that nobody else has ever been there,<<

No-one else had the resources to do it, or the national will. The Soviet Union had some plans to do it, but were not granted the proper funding and the basic administration of the entire space program was a total shambles. They had some very unreliable launch vehicles. The one intended for a manned lunar landing had a distressing habit of turning into a large ball of fire somewhere between launch and orbit.

>>and we have NOT returned to the moon since the first time.<<

The first six times, to be precise. But since Apollo cost billions of taxpayers' dollars, and the taxpayer saw the first landing as the ultimate goal rather than the start of a manned presence in space, funding was slashed and NASA was effectively prevented from sending men to the Moon after 1972. Technology aside, if the money ain't there it ain't happening.

Answer 3

"...We don't really have any "proof" that we ever made it to the moon, well at least nothing that couldn't be spoofed..."

Wrong-o..! Hundreds of pounds of soil and rocks were brought back from the moon, analyzed by hundreds of laboratories around the world, and verified as being non-terrestrial in origin. No, the material couldn't have come from meteorites because they've been analyzed for decades and have different chemical ratios than the lunar materials.

"...we have NOT returned to the moon since the first time..."

There were a total of six manned lunar landings. There would have been seven but Apollo 13 didn't make it.

There are two good reasons we haven't been back since the Apollo landings --
1. There was nothing found of any real value on the moon aside from scientific
2. $$

Congratulations on not falling for the conspiracy wackos' b.s.

Answer 4

Proof is in the eye of the beholder. It is called "trust"(in reality) and yes, if you have ANY doubts that we went to the moon, you are a conspiracy theorist.

Practically ALL of what you seem to "know" is false.

The Russians have landed multiple times on the moon with probes:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/lunarussr.html

Of course... if NASA says it, it must be all lies! And who would ever trust the Russians!

:-)

I don't know what is funny about not wasting money on going to the moon after you have been there... there was nothing left to prove, especially since the USSR gave up on the whole race and there was nothing else of interest to a country ignorant of the real science impact. And then, another Apollo 13 but this time with dead people in a can would have been REALLY bad policy.

The HD imaging capability of the Japanese is meant to image Earth for public relations purposes. It has no scientific value. The Terrain Camera seems to have a resolution of 10m on the lunar surface, far too low to see the landing sites in sufficient resolution. Maybe a few pixels will be modified in a way that can be attributed to the NASA maps of the landing sites. If we did not know what to expect, though, 10m/pixel are far to low to detect anything...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SELENE

If you want to see what a real modern planetary camera can do, see HIRISE:

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

Indeed, a HIRISE class instrument could image the landing sites and show what is there. But then... it would be NASA publishing the images and we all know that NASA makes this stuff up to cover up the fact that they never went to the moon!

:-)

Like I said... there can be no proof, unless you trust that some people, some time, are telling the truth. If you can't do even that, there is no proof for anything, but there will be a lifetime of mental illness aka paranoia. Your decision, really.

Answer 5

Even though you've put in a disclaimer at the start of your question, you're still going to get a bollocking.

Let's put it this way. I have never seen any proof that the 1996 Atlanta Olympics ever happened. Nothing that couldn't be spoofed.

Now, the reasons that you are going to tell me that the Atlanta Olympics can't possibly have been spoofed are the exact reasons that the moon landings can't possibly have been faked.

There is nothing funny about the fact that no-one's been back. In fact it's tragic. But after the interval became too great, it seemed more sensible to wait until the technology allowed a longer stay with more exploration at less cost. It was, admittedly, hundreds of millions of dollars (in 1969 terms) to get two men there, in perilously dangerous conditions, for a few hours.

Answer 6

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Did we (USA) ever really go to the moon?
I am not a conspiracy theorist but a friend recently made a good point:
We don't really have any "proof" that we ever made it to the moon, well at least nothing that couldn't be spoofed.

I do know that the Russians have tried multiple times to land on the moon but have never...

Answer 7

Ask Neil Armstrong - of course we went to the moon - it was very expensive and we didn't choose a path that would lead to a sustainable presence on the moon - it was hard to make it pay in the 60's and 70's - perhaps we can now...

Answer 8

I wish Buzz Aldrin was here. He'd punch you in the nose for calling him a liar. Then all the other astronauts who walked on the moon would line up right after him.

Answer 9

the only proof these people could and WILL accept
is if they landed on the surface of the moon themselves

and then wept

here's all the proof that I need.
(not to mention seeing Buzz on TV)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_laser_ranging_experiment
they left mirrors on the moon to help us measure the distance
with laser and computers and they're still there even to this instant.

Answer 10

There were actually several missions that went to the moon. (I think about 12 astronauts all up.) Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were just the first.

What proof do you need? If something exists - someone else can fake it.