The absurdity of the “faked Apollo moon landing” conspiracy theories

American Thinker ^ | 07/21/2019 | Michael Nollet

[SeekAndFind]

Our nation yesterday rightly treated itself to a celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. Vice President Pence summed it up this way: "This may be the only event of the 20^th century that will be remembered in the 30^th.

But it wasn’t celebrated by everybody. Even for an event like this, there are conspiracy theorists. They claim that the Apollo program never happened, that it was all faked by the United States government, as in the movie Capricorn-1. Examples: Some conspiracy theorists talk about the fluttering in the flag planted by Buzz Aldrin. (Explanation: it was vibrations in the wires holding it, after Aldrin pounded it into the regolith.) Others object to the lack of stars in the photos taken from the Moon’s surface (Explanation: the Moon’s surface was so bright, a quick f-stop exposure time on the camera was needed.) Footprints on the moon would require moisture, right? (No, they wouldn’t.) Trivial objections are raised to “prove” that the mission was faked, and the debunking explanations are ignored.

Buzz Aldrin once had to punch out a heckler calling him a liar who had participated in a faked Apollo mission.

What can one say? It is reminiscent of the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrine of studied or affected Vincible Ignorance, meaning stubborn resistance to the truth and refusal to accept it, no matter how overwhelming the evidence in its favor is.

This writer personally saw the Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket a month before it launched from Cape Kennedy. It was part of a guided tour given to NROTC midshipmen doing their summer training cruises. So there the rocket was, as tall as a football field is long including the end zones. Let’s suppose it was a fake, that it was a plywood fabrication.

[Rockingham]

Not so. The Moon landing was a major accomplishment and demonstrated American scientific and technological capabilities. This helped to win the Cold War more or less peacefully and continues to support US superpower status and the dollar's role as the world's trade and reserve currency. This has tangible benefit in that the US is able to finance the vast deficits caused by its social spending -- thus providing older Americans with Medicare and Social Security on generous terms.

Moreover, within a generation or two, the exploitation of resources on the Moon and asteroids will begin to benefit Earth's economy. Helium 3 from the Moon's surface may be the key to practical fusion power generation, while asteroid mining could provide an abundance of rare metals. And it will have begun with the Apollo program, just as the European settlement of America began with Columbus.

[Nateman]

Once cites on the moon are established the whole solar system becomes a treasure to be used. It also protects civilization itself from self extinction. So it was not a waste of money but part of the process where life on Earth expands into the rest of the universe.

[Sybeck1]

And Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee died in pursuit of a hoax.

[KarlInOhio]

I read that the computer technology then was no more powerful than a smartphone today.

	Apollo Mission Computer	My cell phone
clock speed	2.048 MHz	1400 MHz quad core
program memory	72 kB read only	32 GB flash + 32 GB flash car
RAM	4 kB	2 GB
display	13 lights + 21 digits	1280x720 full color display.
input	10 digits + 9 other keys	touch screen
power	55 watts	a lot less
weight	70 pounds	5 ounces
Candy Crush	no	yes

[21twelve]

I’m guessing that a $70 high-school graphing calculator has more computing capacity than Apollo had!

[hinckley buzzard]

I hear this piece of nonsense every day these days. The fact is, we did go back to the moon. Three or four times iirc. After that there just wasn’t much left of interest to discover about the lunar surface, and the expense was mounting rapidly.

[Chode]

funny i have NEVER, EVER heard the Soviets claim it was a fake

[Celtic Conservative]

What I heard the other day is that your average smartphone is 100,000 times more powerful than the computers that controlled the Apollo missions.

CC

[LibWhacker]

Good points, thx!

[BenLurkin]

Here you go, Leaked footage of the hoax planning committee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE-tpiAiiHo

[dp0622]

lol

[Let's Roll]

We went to the moon six times between 1969 and 1972 and 12 people walked on the moon.

Google it.

[Rebelbase]

My Grandfather didn’t believe it either.

[Rebelbase]

Too hot to make beef jerky.

[Churchillspirit]

You must be proud of your father.

[Billthedrill]

You had me at Candy Crush.

I think I have it figured out. They did fake the moon landing, but they had to build the sound stage on the moon.

There may still be a few rough edges with this theory...

[Peter ODonnell]

“One small step for man, one clumsy stumble into a Utah gravel pit.”

[stig]

I read that the computer technology then was no more powerful than a smartphone today . . .

a smart phone is orders of magnitude more powerful than a mainfraim computer from the 1960s that took up a large air conditioned room. That's part of the problem. How did they navigate so precisely with a substandard on-board computer? Granted they developed the microprocessor to make it happen, but it would have been less powerful than the first Apple machine delivered in the late 70s.

In 1978 people were still using card punch machines to create computer programs to be read through a card reader connected to a mainframe.

This lack of power and sophistication is partly why the conspiracy theory exists. Couple with that with the fact that the space program through the rest of the 20th century (after apollo) amounted to low earth orbits with the space shuttle.

Finally with all our technology and powerful computers, with our advances in machining, look how long it is taking to create a set of new rockets to launch man into space.

I'm not saying I believe the conspiracy theorists but I certainly understand how a dismal space program (after the pinnacle reached by apollo) creates fertile ground for their theories to take root.