Was the Apollo mission real?
608588
Yes, the moon landings were real. Some people still maintain that the Earth is flat - no one takes them seriously; no one should take the 'moon landing is a hoax' seriously either.\n\nFirst, we have material evidence: rocks from the moon, photographs taken from there, the word of thousands and thousands of people who worked on the project, etc. Even more damning, the astronauts left a prism mirror on the moon that anyone with a medium laser can target to see the laser reflected! And do you really think the Russians wouldn't have raised a stink if any of their, oh, dozen thousands physicists had found something dodgy? Or do you think they all failed to know about something like 'heat and air on the moon'?\n\nThen we have so much stuff in space now, like thousands of satellites, probes on Mars, and even outside the solar system, what is so unlikely about landing on the moon, which is incredibly close to us, astronomically speaking? It's only 3 days away!\n\nAll the arguments from conspiracy theorists have been easily rebuked; the three sites at the end give a good rundown. The most commons were:\n\n- There is a flag waving! there is no air on the moon! Hoax!\nHum. The flag is not moving, notice? It *looks* like it's in the middle of a wave, because it was built like that! The NASA, incredibly enough, figured out that there was no wind on the moon, and that a limp flag would be a tad disappointing, so simply attached the flag to perpendicular poles in that position. Try it in your garden, it will take 5 minutes.\n\n- The photos are too good! That's not possible!\nNo, they took hundreds of pictures, and you only see the good ones, just like any amateur photographer will tell you. \n\n- The footprint doesn't look at all like the one you leave in sand!\nThat's because the moon is not covered in sand... Sand is created by erosive forces grinding up rock, like the sea or plate tectonics. The moon has no erosive force, since it's dry and not volcanic. The dust there is rocks vaporised by meteoric impacts, which looks a lot like flour. Put a heap of flour on the ground and watch your footprint: very similar, no?\n\nSo, no, the government is not involved in *this* coverup :-)
233648
There was a cover-up, but not full blown. NASA didn't have 100% reliability in the video and photographic end to show the World. When problems came up they substituted shots to make it look like a flawless mission, which it wasn't. True there is some glaring impossibilities in some shots, about 95% was shown unedited. But just because some areas were was faked doesn't mean the whole mission was faked.\nSo, Yes they were on the Moon, No, they didn't get the only photo that really mattered in a high enough quality to parade proudly before the whole world watching,(first step off the ladder),because of a bad camera angle and subject in almost complete shadow.Yes, you have a good question.\n\nAdditional thought:\nReleasing this video and stills event were probably "Production" oriented people running the "show".\nThey see information as not necessarily an absolute document of the events, but a presentation.\nThey rely on 2 "rolls".\nThe A Roll which has the primary information on it.\nThe B Roll which can be relied on to fill production errors.\nIdeally you would air only the A roll in a perfect documentary, but that didn't happen.\nB roll info was inserted to fill the gaps.\nSomeone had to make the decision as to whether it was more important to have a documentary or a production.\nIt would have looked very bad to have unusable video and stills for long or important events. "They can send a man to the moon but they can't take a picture?"\nSo we all saw a production.
1112503
Actually, no, we haven't done it since the original six landings.  The last one was Apollo 17 in 1972, and since then, we haven't sent a manned mission back to the moon.
420160
Apollo 14 also brought nearly 100 pounds of lunar samples back to Earth, was the first use of the Mobile Equipment Transporter, placed the largest payload into lunar orbit, had the longest time spent on the lunar surface and the longest lunar EVA, was the first to use the shortened lunar orbit rendezvous technique, and was the first one to use colour TV broadcast from the lunar surface.\n\nit was also the mission which performed the first U.S. materials processing experiments in space, paving the way for potential future zero-G manufacturing industry.\n\nit was the only Apollo mission to include one of the orginial Mercury astronauts to reach the Moon (Alan Shepard).\n\nApollo 14 was the mission in which Shepard smuggled a makeshift six iron and two golf balls to the Moon and took several swings.  Mitchell used a lunar scoop handle as a javelin, creating the first Lunar Olympics.\n\nMitchell also conducted some unauthorized ESP experiments while en route to the Moon.  His success rate was lower than random chance.\n\nIt was the also the mission in which tree seeds were taken from Earth to the Moon and back.  Many of these Moon trees were planted by schools around the country, and many are still standing.\n\nIn addition to the many scientific and technological mission breakthroughs for this mission, Apollo 14 helped to humanize the space program for a lot of people.  Seeing astronauts having fun on the Moon was probably more valuable to the space program than the engineers and physicists were willing to admit.
654352
Our technology has improved quite a bit since the Apollo program. In particular, computers are able to do the routine chores that required humans back in the late 60's and early 70's. The person up in orbit was there to direct the orbiter to rendevous. This is no longer required.
21288
They DID land on the moon. See the sources.
1099347
Yes i do. The Moon Landing. I dont think it happened.
1078187
The evidence  against is actually proof. The Moon, rocket fuel, etc. all would act differently than Hollywood could anticipate. \nSee Skeptics Magazine and Skeptical Inquirer for pros and cons.\nFor instance, the hammer on the astronaut's belt swings as it would in a lower gravity. It looks fake, but shows they are in a lower gravity.\nThings like inertial guidance system use in airliners, scientific papers all would be hard to fake and who would have thought to write them otherwise?
823638
Although my wife's father performed fuel calculations for the original Apollo landing, I'll spare you that speech. Instead, I will encourage you to watch two programs. The first show is called Conspiracy Moon Landing that it currently showing on the National Geographic Channel and it pretty much obliterates all of the popular conspiracy theories.\n\nI would also encourage you to watch a movie called Capricorn One. Made it 1978, it is a fictional story about a fake mission to Mars. Although it is a science fiction story, it is a good example of how utterly impossible it would be to fake a moon landing for any length of time.\n\n12 men walked on the moon from 1969 to 1972 and we have neither the resources nor the technology to pull off that big of a hoax for so long. Hundreds of thousands of people have worked on the space program. It would be far easier to put someone on the moon than to try and fake it and keep it secret for nearly 40 years. \n\nThe landings came at a time when our space program was ultra competitive with the former Soviet Union. Remember how big of a deal it was when Sputnik was put into orbit? They had the technology to monitor our moon shots and transmissions. Don't you think they would have called us out if they had evidence that it was all fake? \n\nPerhaps the most definitive proof of our trip to the moon is what we left behind. For the last 35+ years, scientists have been beaming lasers to the moon and measuring the return times. How are they doing this? The beams are reflected back by equipment left on the moon on at 3 different locations.\n\nCase closed.
84818
As a matter of fact, I did. I recall seeing a blurb about this in Chariots of the Gods. It was stated but not often reported that non-terrestrial ships were noted by astronauts. In fact, there is a number of sightings by NASA personnel re: extra-terrestrial encounters or 'experiences.' Project Blue Book was originally set out by the USAF in 1951 to address these concerns. The initial goal was to collect the stories and then to set about disclaiming or disproving them in public. The project backfired and ended up collecting far too much data for easy dismissal. What it did do however was highlight what was known, what material was collected and by whom. American citizens were fooled into thinking that their government wanted to know...when in fact it really wanted to cover the materail up PRIOR to information going to the press. To this day, much of the most interesting evidence re" extraterrestrial evidence has been prevented from being released and/or "lost."
144996
Yes, I believe man has really visited the moon. Propaganda for what purpose? To beat the Russians? Please don't drink any kool-aid.
408969
I think the Apollo budget was used for "black projects"...secret aircraft, secret bases etc.\n\nThe astronauts were in earth orbit the whole time and mission control were looking at pre-programmed readings so they were not even aware of what was going on. That is why it was easy to keep this a secret all of these years. Only a handful of top people new what was going on. The lunar rocks were collected at the poles (meteorites), and lunar video was shot in the Nevada dessert at night where much of the Apollo budget went to their military base.\n\nThe moon has been scanned/photographed with radar, so has mars and we can see those images/grids of the planet's surface. I recall even seeing one of the robotic landers and it's tread marks in the sand from a mars satellite image!\n\nI would think the lunar satellite images would definitely be taken and shown to all of us of the Apollo landing site since it's such a big historical achievement?\nWhere are those images?
325274
I believe the FIRST landing was faked, as it was almost impossible to design and build the equipment in such a short (relatively speaking) period between the time President Kennedy asked NASA to do it and the end of the decade, about eight years. Remember, they didn't have sophisticated computers  in 1960 like they do now, so a lot of their calculations on trajectory etc. were not as accurate as they are today.
302436
Actually I believe they did... evidence exists and all the proof people give to say otherwise can easily be explained... space missions still go one today and people do still land on the moon. It's not impossible! We should be glad that people are making the effort to study the things around us - though perhaps my only qualm is that the money spent could be better used for something else... like helping the poor
388081
Well, i read an autobiography of Buzz Aldrin's of his walk to the moon (in a literature textbook), and it sounded pretty real. Why would Buzz Aldrin lie about something like that?
1088713
Each Apollo mission made it possible for the next.  Even though Apollo 11 did what the program intended (land and walk on the moon), every Apollo mission was historic!\n\nNow, lets step back a bit....and I'll tell you this from what I remember as a 7 and 8 year old child!!!\n\n1.  Apollo 7 tested a brand new Service Module (SM) and Command Module (CM) during a week in orbit around the earth.  They tested everything they could on that system, including starting and stopping the hypergolic fueled 22,000lb thrust engine on the SM to ensure it would work once they got to the moon.  Apollo 7, although it is never talked about, paved the way for a mission to the moon with Apollo 8.  Apollo 7 was a phoenix that rose from the ashes of Apollo 1 where three of our astronauts died in a tragic fire.\n\n2.  Because of Apollo 7's resounding success, and some worries about the Russians beating us, they threw the dice and came up with the plan to send Apollo 8 to the moon. So on December 21, 1968 (I was 7 and remember watching this on the TV), Apollo 8 was launched and became the first manned spacecraft to break away from the bonds of Earth's gravitational field. Apollo 8 was the FIRST manned flight of the Mighty Saturn V rocket with its first stage (SV-1) and 5 F-1  engines pumping out 7.5 million pounds of thrust; its 5 J-2 engines, the first engines designed to operate on liquid hydrogen and oxygen in the vacuum of space,  on the 2nd stage (SV-2), and finally its lone J-2 engine on the 3rd stage (SVB-IV) that placed them in a parking orbit around the earth, and then restarted and sent them on their merry way to the moon.    They were put in a free return trajectory meaning that once they got to the moon, they could if they wanted to, slingshot around its backside and then come home.   They didn't do that.  At the precise time the 22,000 hypergolic engine on the SM fired and placed them in orbit around the moon!  For the first time ever, man saw the backside of the moon!  They orbited the moon 10 revolutions during Chrismtas eve and Chrismas day, re-fired that 22,000 engine to break away from the moon's gravitational field and came home and splashed down close to the Christmas Islands.\n\nWho says Apollo 8 is not remembered.  Just look at that picture of earthrise.  That was a first from Apollo 8's cameras & astronauts.   Who can ever forget them reading from the book of Genesis as they orbited the moon.  I certainly won't!\n\n3.  Apollo 9 was the 2nd flight of the Saturn V rocket and they placed a brand new Lunar Excursion Module (LEM, shortened to LM for Lunar Module) in Earth's orbit and proceeded to test the LM until they were satisfied it worked properly.  This meant 2 astronauts leaving their mother ship (CM) and riding around above our atmosphere in a ship with no heatshield and a ship that's walls were made of mylar about as thick as a trojan rubber!  The mission was a resounding success.\n\n4.  Apollo 10 was the 3rd flight of the Saturn V and they took a LM to the moon and tested it.  Part of the mission called for using the descent stage of the LM and getting very close to the surface, but not landing.  They did that and then fired the ascent stage to see if it would work.  Unfortunately, a switch was in a wrong position and the craft started bucking and wobbling all over the place, leading Gene Cernan to say "son-of-a-b!tch" in response to the wild gyrations of the LM.  Needless to say, NASA was not happy with that, but they were glad the 2 astronauts found the switch, changed its position, and then docked with the Apollo 10 CM and came home.\n\n5.  So with Apollo 7's success came Apollo 8, then 9, then 10 and because they were all resoundingly successful in proving the rockets and the equipment, they (Apollo 11)  were able to land on the moon and walk on its surface 6 months before the end of the decade and fulfilling John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon and re
429374
some say that the apollo missions to the moon were fake so that america could win the space race. also because their is really no interset on the moon for us except moon rocks. we can study the craters from earth. NASA and other space researchers in the world are planning missions to mars, and unmanned space explorations of other planets.