July 16, 1969

[Mike DC]

 
I think arguing that the moon landing was fake sort of misunderstands that time in general.



Of course there were good reasons to wanna fake that incident - in retrospect.  We look back NOW and realize that the entire moon project held little military significance and didn't even lead to commercial activity in space.   

But in the 1960s they didn't know that.  They looked at the moon like a strategic location in the cold war.  They didn't want to FAKE going to the moon to impress the public, they genuinely wanted to go to the moon and they struggled to convince the public it was worth the effort.   



And besides:  If we really faked the moon mission, and then if Russia actually went there a couple years later, and caught us in the lie . . .  it doesn't get much more embarrassing and prestige-wrecking that that.

[Ghoste]

I saw a Mythbusters episode last night that debunked a lot of the conspiracy theorists evidence including the flag one (it only moves like that when the astronauts are pushing it into the lunar surface and as it turns out, a flag in a vacuum has no wind resistance to make it go still quickly-it will "flap" for a long time after jiggling the pole).  I have always believed they went. 

[Troy]

All of the conspiracy theories have been debunked. It only takes a minute to research - but that's about 58 seconds longer than the average American's attention span.

Troy

[Old Moparz]

All of the conspiracy theories have been debunked. It only takes a minute to research - but that's about 58 seconds longer than the average American's attention span.

Troy

LOL....


As for the moon landing, I have to agree with some of the others & say it was real. The hype around the space race going on during that time period was incredible, & there was way too much riding on being caught faking it. The USA & the USSR were almost ready to annihilate each other with nukes over who's dick was the biggest. You could only imagine who'd win the propaganda war if one country was caught using Star Trek models & action figures instead of the real deal. I know governments are capable of deceiving & secretly conspiring with other countries, but space exploration was so big, with so many people involved even at a civilian level, I seriously doubt it didn't happen or we'd have heard some people who held significant positions come forward a long time ago.

As much as I loved the outer space segment of science, I've always been uneasy over what NASA actually spends. I'd be willing to bet that there is a lot more spent, but it's just funneled through different agencies & pet pork projects. Instead of using the funding for what seems like a waste of money, part of me would like to see it spent it in places where it would benefit others like better school programs, health, etc. I was a kid during the 60's & remember how exciting the space race was, or anything related to it. The teacher had a TV brought into our class so we could watch it. I play favoritism towards seeing NASA get funding & keeping the space program going. There is a lot of modern technology that's well advanced directly because of the space program. Unfortunately there is also a negative side to all the info available, like what North Korea might do with it for example.

It is important though, without all this technology, think about how many lost souls there'd be right now if satellite technology didn't exist. All those people who couldn't send a text message to a friend about what they're doing just 4 minutes after they saw them in person.   

[Khyron]

I know it may sound stupid, but with all the minder tech and high definition digital telescopes, cant anyone just point to the landing site and see the junk we left behind?


seriously, we can take a great picture of the mars landscape, but cant take a picture of something only 221,560 miles at it's closest point?

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html

common now, really.

[Khyron]

whos got a good telescope?

[moparstuart]

even at age 72 in 2003  buzz is a bad ass

    I would have kick the dudes ass for calling me a coward also 


  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOo6aHSY8hU

[Todd Wilson]

I watched Myth Busters last night and then right after was the Discovery show on the Apollo Projects leading up to the moon landing. Looked back on it, it was an amazing feat with the technology of the time. I got more computer power in my little room here then they probably had at mission control.  What balls those guys had to have. Just launching into space is a big deal but to fly to the moon and come back. To test the Eagle up there by getting into it and coming apart from the Command Module and then go out 50 miles and come back and hook up. Never before been done other then in simulations.  Then to fly eagle down by the moon but not land and then finally go for it with Apoolo 11. Armstrong and Buzz truely have the biggest balls of us all! Heck I get nervous about breaking down on the highway 200 miles from home sometimes! HEHE!


Todd

[Rigs]

NASA.........

NEVER
ACTUALLY
SENT
ASTRONAUTS