OT - Conspiracy Theories.... I love the imagination!

[Fusilier]

You shouldn't believe everything you read, because that like believing in everything you hear.

Correct. Which is why you always check the sources of any claims.

In this case there is ample facts (either observable, testable, or verifiable) from a large number of neutral 3rd parties that shows that the landings did indeed occur.

[Webstral]

Moon landings are a better challenge, but they are much harder to pull off. We've been stuck in Earth orbit since the 1970's because the political will to go back go the Moon (and spend the money) isn't there. While I'm not even a well-read amateur on the subject of lunar exploration, I do know that getting people there and back requires a much greater expenditure of energy, which translates into much greater cost than an orbital destination. While I firmly agree that we should be returning to the Moon (and exploiting lunar resources), the political will just hasn't been there.

Just wait till China (or worse, India!) puts something significant on the lunar surface. Then you'll see the political will return like a bad case of acid reflux.

Webstral

[pmulcahy11b]

Moon landings are a better challenge, but they are much harder to pull off. We've been stuck in Earth orbit since the 1970's because the political will to go back go the Moon (and spend the money) isn't there. While I'm not even a well-read amateur on the subject of lunar exploration, I do know that getting people there and back requires a much greater expenditure of energy, which translates into much greater cost than an orbital destination. While I firmly agree that we should be returning to the Moon (and exploiting lunar resources), the political will just hasn't been there.

Just wait till China (or worse, India!) puts something significant on the lunar surface. Then you'll see the political will return like a bad case of acid reflux.

Webstral

I firmly believe that the next astronaut to set foot on the moon will be Chinese. The first expedition to Mars will be international -- but the way the economy and the will of the electorate is going in this country, there may not be an American on that first crew that goes to Mars. The people and politicians in this country don't seem to have the stomach or resolve to tackle the big projects anymore, even important ones like getting off fossil fuels (which should be a priority for the entire human race -- an international effort like that which sent astronauts to the moon, scaled-up). And our politicians are barely willing even to do something that might be politically risky or cost them campaign dollars. I believe that without colonizing space (and soon) the human race is not going to have a chance to survive even if we get through the next century intact, but the people of this country by and large can't see the necessity of almost any large-scale scientific research, let alone something hugely expensive like human space exploration and colonization.

On another tack, what power telescope does it take to pick out the landing sites on the Moon It's actually an urban myth that you can see the Great Wall of China or other large man-made structures from orbit with the naked eye -- you need a lens with a pretty decent magnification to see even the largest man-made structures from orbit. During the day, from the orbits that the Space Shuttle and the ISS use, you can't even look down with the naked eye and see our largest cities -- you need a lens with a magnification of at least 4x to start seeing them. (At nighttime, however, you can see the lights from the cities fairly well with the naked eye.) It seems that you'd need one of those huge telescopes like the 200-inch one on Mt. Palomar to see the landing sites from the Earth.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

In regards to how did we go from orbiting the Earth to landing on the Moon so quickly, I'd just like to say that in the 1920s we had aircraft made of wood, wire and canvas, then in the 1940s they were made from metal and powered by jet engines and could just reach the sound barrier. In the late 1950s they began the design that resulted in the SR-71, a high altitude Mach 3 aircraft that first flew in 1964. In 1981, the first US Space Shuttle launch was achieved, a spacecraft designed in the 1970s.
So in 50 years we have gone from wood & canvas biplanes to the space shuttle, I think we could easily have achieved the Moon landings. The technology was sufficient and the political will and funding were strong enough to support the efforts

[Mahatatain]

Personally I think that the moon landings were real.

The criticism I've always heard is to do with the footage having shadows on things that shouldn't have had shadows and flags "flapping in the wind" etc. I've always wondered whether some of the real footage wasn't particularly good and that as a result the NASA PR department decided to use some footage from the training on earth to make the what they released more impactful.

[Fusilier]

The criticism I've always heard is to do with the footage having shadows on things that shouldn't have had shadows and flags "flapping in the wind" etc.

Both of those have been tested and refuted under laboratory conditions as being false.

[Raellus]

In regards to how did we go from orbiting the Earth to landing on the Moon so quickly, I'd just like to say that in the 1920s we had aircraft made of wood, wire and canvas, then in the 1940s they were made from metal and powered by jet engines and could just reach the sound barrier. In the late 1950s they began the design that resulted in the SR-71, a high altitude Mach 3 aircraft that first flew in 1964. In 1981, the first US Space Shuttle launch was achieved, a spacecraft designed in the 1970s.
So in 50 years we have gone from wood & canvas biplanes to the space shuttle, I think we could easily have achieved the Moon landings. The technology was sufficient and the political will and funding were strong enough to support the efforts

And don't forget the reverse engineering of alien spacecraft technology discovered at the Roswell UFO crash site!

[kota1342000]

Well, since we're speaking of conspiracy stories and I think Ive had my fill of political garbage, I think Id like to put forward Terry Pratchett's theory about alien abductions and their banning by the intergalactic community as of late. The confusion as to what would be interesting in our BVDs aside, the banning on abductions has been placed due to different species of alien expeditions lying in wait to abduct humans accidentally abducting other aliens who were lying in wait to do the same thing. Add to that another group of aliens who had received confused instructions and were herding cattle into circles and mutilating crops, and it was clear that the intergalactic community had to make Earth a "no-abduction zone" until it was determined exactly how many earthlings they had actually abducted. As it turns out, only one; who happens to be eight feet tall, extremely hairy and with gigantic feet.

[pmulcahy11b]

We haven't landed on the moon...yet. Those pictures were grabbed off of news communications satellites using a device invented using technology from crashed UFOs, which allowed us to intercept signals from satellites not yet invented. We did that with the alien technology, because the saucer in the Roswell crash contained a device that allowed communication with different points in time using a time-space tunneling technology.

How's that for a conspiracy theory

[pmulcahy11b]

Since Kota brought up Sasquatch, what do you think of that I can believe that there could be a Yeti -- the places it's supposedly been spotted are remote and hostile enough to humans that a breeding population could go almost unnoticed. Sasquatch, however, I have more trouble believing -- I don't think a viable breeding population could go this long unnoticed in the US and Canada, since we humans have tramped liberally across the landscape for hundreds of years, and civilization has been gobbling up more and more of the wilderness in the region for almost as long.

[pmulcahy11b]

Well, since we're speaking of conspiracy stories and I think Ive had my fill of political garbage, I think Id like to put forward Terry Pratchett's theory about alien abductions and their banning by the intergalactic community as of late. The confusion as to what would be interesting in our BVDs aside, the banning on abductions has been placed due to different species of alien expeditions lying in wait to abduct humans accidentally abducting other aliens who were lying in wait to do the same thing. Add to that another group of aliens who had received confused instructions and were herding cattle into circles and mutilating crops, and it was clear that the intergalactic community had to make Earth a "no-abduction zone" until it was determined exactly how many earthlings they had actually abducted. As it turns out, only one; who happens to be eight feet tall, extremely hairy and with gigantic feet.

I read a story in my early teens -- can't remember the author or name of it. In that story, it turned out that the "aliens" were us. Those "aliens" were in fact our descendants, tens of thousands of years from now, and they periodically travel back in time to study their ancestors, and to ensure that historical events unfold in such a way to ensure their existence.

Quite frankly, the possible paradoxes that come with time travel boggle my mind. But I think that time travel is the one technology that absolutely, under no circumstances whatsoever, that humans should ever be allowed to develop. Think of the crap we've pulled with technology so far -- the human race isn't responsible enough to possess time travel. The amount of wisdom you'd need to have to not produce any paradoxes with time travel is probably impossible for any race in the universe to possess. And it's virtually certain that time travel would be misused by mankind -- we've pretty much misused every other technology we've come up with in some way or another.

[Fusilier]

Sasquatch, however, I have more trouble believing -- I don't think a viable breeding population could go this long unnoticed in the US and Canada, since we humans have tramped liberally across the landscape for hundreds of years, and civilization has been gobbling up more and more of the wilderness in the region for almost as long.

IMO it's highly unlikely due the absence of any real evidence and for the reasons you've gave as well. But regarding the bit about it having nowhere to hide... on the other hand, they recently discovered a deer that nobody knew even existed, in Vietnam which has an very high population density.

[Abbott Shaull]

And don't forget the reverse engineering of alien spacecraft technology discovered at the Roswell UFO crash site!

Reminds of WWII when the Soviet got their hands on B-29 that had landed in the Soviet Union due to damage while on a bomb run over Japan. Stalin order exact duplicates to be reverse engineered. Well they sure did, even included the bullet holes that riddle the plane...lol

[weswood]

My theory on aliens is that they aren't from outer space....they're from underground. All the UFO sightings are just drones to draw attention away from the truth.

[waiting4something]

I don't think Big Foot could exist either with him being so big and not getting spotted. They have done so much to find one and never produced anything yet. By now someone would have shot one or found remains of one.