posted 09-04-2011 05:29 PM               

I haven't. I'm a college-educated American about to turn 36 years old, and I keep hearing and reading that X percent of the people surveyed think the whole thing might have been a sham...but I have yet to knowingly interact with anyone who asserts that Americans didn't actually land on the moon, and that the whole thing was filmed in a Hollywood studio or whatever.

Seriously, have any cSers ever had an interaction with anyone who earnestly believes that we "faked it?"

I'm not talking about self-promoting hucksters like Bart Sibrel and his ilk.

I mean your family, friends, professional associates, etc. Have you really been confronted with this lunacy (no pun intended)? How did you feel, and how did you react?

posted 09-04-2011 08:30 PM               

One day he said, "I'll change my mind when they turn the Hubble telescope around and take pictures of the landing sites."

I said, "The Hubble wouldn't be able to image lunar landing sites. It's not set up for that."

His response: "Isn't that convenient!!"

Great guy to work with, a wonderful family man, but he frankly did not have the slightest grasp on any of the basics - like, even the shape of the Van Allen belts. All of his research was watching YouTube videos, which he readily fessed up to.

Another time he said, "They didn't even know how to navigate to the moon in 1969."

I responded, "They knew how to navigate to the moon in 1959!" I suggested he read such books as 'Moon Lander' by Tom Kelly, but I don't believe it ever graced his nightstand.

Nevertheless, we remained good friends. It was never a serious pressure point between us. By the time he left our employ, his attitude had shifted from "definite hoax" to "I'm on the fence."

posted 09-05-2011 08:18 AM               

I was speechless. After giving him a short course in spaceflight history I came to a conclusion.

If people think all sorts of wrong things concerning manned spaceflight, we should just go ahead and spend whatever it takes to get to the planets. It is such a peripheral part of the average Joe's life that one way or another it matters not to them if we are or are not on the Moon, Mars, etc.

The benefits are there for all even if they do not appreciate it. Like treatments for cancer, until someone close is in dire need of such technologies, most folk don't give it a second thought.

posted 09-05-2011 12:50 PM               

I would get at least 20 a game sometimes at the stadium and mostly at the bar that freely offered their opinions about the Moon landings. Generally if they did believe they happened, they also believed that the government was hiding something like in Apollo 18. Many said they found a hostel population and underground cities.

posted 09-07-2011 05:31 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Beau08:
I think the one that would be hardest to fake is the reflector on the surface of the moon that bounces laser light back to earth so the distance to the moon can be measured precisely.

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posted 09-07-2011 05:40 AM               

Yes, there have been government cover-ups, such as medical experiments done in Guatemala. But those cover-ups can usually answer the 'why' question: In the case of Guatemala, to further medical science (however misguided it may have been.) In the case of the U-2, to hide the fact it was a high-flying spy plane used for national security.

posted 09-07-2011 08:01 AM               

Try this approach with those who believe it was a hoax. Agree with them; tell them you collect for profit and then go on to explain to them that the whole atomic bomb thing was faked as well. That they faked pictures taken only by the "government" and it was all done to justify military spending in the 50's. The Russians caught on and they faked it too just to keep up. The US government could not say anything otherwise they would reveal their hoax. Thus the Cold War was faked as well!! It may not convince them the moon landing was real, but they won't even think about it anymore while they are off to research the "atomic bomb hoax".

posted 09-07-2011 02:00 PM               

Some years back Yury Usachev was speaking at this school. I told her she should mention to Yury her feelings on the moon landings. She did, and his answer was "do you not think Russia would have cried foul if they had?" Her response? What do you really know, there's no ISS up there, really.

posted 09-07-2011 02:57 PM            

A close friend of mine mentioned to me a few years ago that he believed that the Apollo program only went as far as lunar orbit. He was absolutely certain that the LM was incapable of landing on the moon, and was twice as sure that it did not have enough thrust to ever lift off again even if it did somehow manage to stumble its way down to the lunar surface.

I immediately sat him down with my trusty laptop, a calculator, and a ream of paper and spent hours researching the specs of the LM, the ascent and descent engines, mass/weight of rocks & equipment that returned, etc. We spent *hours* on a Saturday berating each other and furiously scribbling formulas on paper (I'm still grateful to his wife and family for humoring the two of us).

In the end, he was shocked that all the math and physics actually proved my point. He finally became a believer and apologized for thinking such hoaxy nonsense.

posted 09-07-2011 08:16 PM            

Some people have closed minds and will argue that if NASA could fake the "Moon landings" they could certainly fake LRO and its pictures. But if anyone tries to suggest that the LRO pictures are fakes, I suggest tackling them head on, by pointing out that they are making very serious allegations of a criminal conspiracy by NASA personnel and U.S. Congress budget officials to defraud the U.S. taxpayer out of millions of dollars for a mythical spacecraft; and pointing out that such a fraudulent conspiracy would destroy NASA, shake Congress to its foundations, and put hundreds of government employees and politicians in prison.

posted 09-20-2011 09:24 PM               

My late Uncle (one of the chief geologists for the state of Florida in the past, and a well-educated and respected man) used to say they were faked, but I think he said it to come across as a "character" as he had a very odd sense of humor. Looking back, I now doubt he really believed that.

I served in the Army with a Sergeant who firmly believed it. We talked about it from time to time and really discussed it while sitting around one day at a gunnery exercise in the desert. I used pure logic and human behavior to turn him around.

He'd been in Desert Storm and I asked if they'd faked the use of fuel air bombs (they dropped a few right in front of him on the Iraqi lines before the ground war started), wouldn't that get out? He said of course it would because someone would have talked. I then pointed out that hundreds of thousands of people had their hands in the Apollo program and using his logic, several of them by then would have come forth or had deathbed confessions that they helped fake the landings.

Also, someone involved surely would have written a book by that point to make money for their kid's college fund or something like that. I also pointed out how gleefully the Russians would have busted such a hoax as they would have been able to track the flights and they said nothing.

He mulled it over for a moment and said, "Sir, that makes a lot of sense. I never thought about that but you're right. Someone in the know would have said something by now, wouldn't they?" and that was that. He later said he felt foolish for even thinking that the landings didn't happen.

Tom Hanks was asked about conspiracy theories and he replied, "We live in a society where there is no law [against] making money in the promulgation of ignorance or, in some cases, stupidity."