[NicknamedBob]

One of the things the lunar astronauts did while they were on the surface of the moon, was to deploy a retro-reflector.

It’s a high-tech version of a reflecting taillight lens. Got those little triangle shapes inside that make it a “corner reflector”.

It’s still up there, still reflecting Earthlight back to us.

Many high-school and junior college astronomy clubs have arranged to send a pulsed laser beam to the lunar retro-reflector and have it come back to them after three seconds, much attenuated and detectable only by sensitive equipment. So many photons get lost along the way, you know.

It’s a reliable, and repeatable experiment. You can do it yourself without a very sizable investment.

Now, if this does not constitute reliable evidence for you that men walked on the moon, it should at least demonstrate that we were able to soft-land “something” on the moon.

And if we could land something, what would prevent us from sending a can full of men?

Yes, it was audacious. Perhaps even more audacious than your world view will permit you to see. But we had men back then who were willing to dare.

And willing to try, and do, and die if need be.

But they were daring men. Perhaps you have met too few.

[Tax-chick]

My dad knew Alan Shepard. Cdr. Shepard really went to the moon.

[GOPJ]

Now, if this does not constitute reliable evidence for you that men walked on the moon, it should at least demonstrate that we were able to soft-land “something” on the moon. But we had men back then who were willing to dare. And willing to try, and do, and die if need be. ... they were daring men.

I believe what you're saying and I believe our astronauts were brave men and women - the early ones often test pilots - people who routinely put their lives on the line for their country. The only part I'm disputing is the actual moon landing. I'm not trying to convince anyone... and 99.999999999999999% of Americans agree with you. I watched many of the early take-offs - and was glued to the TV for the splashdowns. Took my kids to the Kennedy Space Center to look at the moon rocks... I'm not some anti-science person. I just don't believe we had the technology to land the craft and take off. It's not personal.

[brytlea]

I don’t doubt for one minute that we went to the Moon (altho I’m glad to hear about the reflector, I didn’t know about it!). I can’t figure out why anyone honestly spends any energy thinking up why we can’t have gone.