Yes, men really did go to the Moon.
Published on Jul 17, 2009 at 4:31 pm.
6 Comments.
Filed under moon, space exploration.
Like so many other people around the world in 1969, I watched the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon unfold. I watched as the astronauts stepped forth onto the lunar surface. I followed the entire mission on television. So, it was a pretty big shock to me to find that some people didn’t believe that we ever went to the Moon. Making matters worse was a science fiction movie about a faked Mars landing. People often seem to confuse movie fiction with reality, so that fictional work is often pointed to by those who don’t believe that we went to the Moon as proof that it is plausible that NASA faked the missions.
I was young when the astronauts went to the Moon. Later, I went to college and studied physics and astronomy. I have seen the lunar samples brought back from the Moon. I know the science done. I know the results of studies of the samples. They are without a doubt not samples of the Earth. I know of the experiments done by the lunar ranging experiments, where lasers from Earth bounced off of the reflectors left behind. The evidence is clear: the lunar landings are real. Yet, as time passed, even more people seemed to feel that we did not go to the Moon.
Over time, I learned history. I have studied and published several things about the history of space exploration. My research has done nothing to make me doubt the landings. In fact, everything that I have studied makes it even more clear that the landings were real. The more that I learn, the more that I see that the things that the doubters point to don’t make sense. They say that there are no stars in the sky. Of course not. I’ve done astrophotography. The Moon is a favorite target. Though stars are often visible in the telescope next to the Moon, they never showed up on film because the stars are too dim and take so long to show up that the Moon is overexposed. That would be even worse on the surface of the Moon. Non-parallel shadows, yet another favorite of the doubters, also occurs on Earth with uniform lighting an uneven ground. Thus, that does not mean that the landings are faked. What about the flag waving? That, too, is another favorite of the doubters. I wrote about that on my blog some time ago. Wow. I was surprised by the response of those who were unwilling to accept that there was an explantion for what they saw other than what they wanted to hear. Some of the responses that I got were quite rude and unpleasant. Why do the Moon-hoaxers have to be so combative? After all, I don’t go to their web sites and post comments attacking them and calling them stupid.
And, of course, if we really didn’t go to the Moon, wouldn’t our arch rivals of the day, the Soviet Union, have had something to say about it rather than congratulating NASA? Then were monitoring the mission very carefully. They tracked the mission. They monitored communications from the Moon. If there were any hint of an irregularity, wouldn’t they have said something?
But, seeing is believing, as they say. Almost everyone that I meet who claims that the NASA Moon missions were faked, once I start explaining the evidence to the contrary, says that if NASA really did go to the Moon, then why don’t we have pictures of the landers? They keep saying that surely the big telescopes on Earth could see the landers. I try to explain to them the physics of optics: diffraction, resolution, and such. The math shows that no telescope on Earth can resolve anything as small as the landing sites. But, they won’t hear any of that. They insist that they know better. Why doesn’t the Hubble telescope look for the flag on the Moon? Again, I explain that it is no closer than the ground based telescopes. Yes, it is in space, but only just barely. It orbits at the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, technically inside the thermosphere, an outer layer of the atmosphere. It isn’t big enough to see the landers, and besides, the Moon is so bright that it would damage the instruments to look at it. No, they don’t want to hear that. They insist that only if they have pictures of the landers sitting on the Moon would they believe.
Again, they ask why none of the unmanned missions to the Moon have seen the Apollo artifacts. I explain that none of those missions had cameras with sufficient resolution. The smallest thing that they could see is still larger than the landing sites. Again, they don’t want to listen. They watch TV, and they see shows science fiction shows like CSI and they think that the science portrayed there is real and the sort of scientific wizardry shown is real. Granted, much of that is based on real science, but it shows things that are beyond what can actually be done with current technology (hence, I call the show science fiction). I patiently explain that we have simply not put anything in lunar orbit capable of the sort of resolution that would show the landing sites. They don’t want to hear it. Unless they see pictures, they won’t believe it.
Well, now they have to believe. Finally, after years of progress, technology has caught up with what they thought it could do. The latest spacecraft to the Moon, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter actually does have the resolution to see the descent stages left behind by the Apollo missions. And, today they have released images of some of the landing sites. Given that this is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, I picked the image of the Apollo 11 landing site to post here. Click on it to see the picture larger.
At present, the spacecraft is still in a fairly high orbit, so the landers look like small black squares casting shadows. Eventually, the orbiting spacecraft will be put into a lower orbit where it will see even more detail. You can look at more of the images here. So, finally, there are the pictures that the Moon hoax believes have wanted. Will they now finally accept the truth that we went to the Moon? Probably not. There was ample evidence before, so this will not convince them either. They’ll come up with some silly reason not to believe the photos. They have been wanting a spacecraft orbiting the Moon to get pictures. Now the pictures are here. But, they’ll probably say that the pictures are also faked. After all, if they are real, then we really did go to the Moon, and then the Moon hoax believers would be wrong. And, admitting that they are wrong would be too much for them.
-Astroprof
Image credit: NASA, GFSC, ASU
Kevin on July 17, 2009 at 4:52 pm: 1
Oh, Astroprof, there you go again using sound reason, scientific explanation and logic to educate those who don’t have anything better to do with their time than to come up with arguments against sound reason, scientific explanation and logic. Another reason why we need to increase the education of science in our schools, starting with students at a young age. I appreciate the use of your blog to (respectfully and intelligently) educate on the internet! Keep up the good fight and the great work.
GI Joe on July 18, 2009 at 5:29 am: 2
AstroProf, thanks so much for highlighting some of the earliest Grassy Knoll wannabe’s and their quest to return to Flat-Earth-ism. For what it’s worth, I appreciate particularly the reference to the Soviets and their penchant for spotlighting any attempt we might have made to get a leg up on them through unwarranted scientific breakthroughs. If any of the conspiracy weenies happen to be reading, I have worked with and spoken to some of those Soviet rocket scientists, and they are all folks who had to be extremely well-trusted by the old regime to get the jobs they had.
EVERY ONE OF THEM knows we really landed on the moon, and EVERY ONE OF THEM wishes it had been their program that did it. They know full well that their program made amazing discoveries and breakthroughs that in many ways overshadow the lunar landing program in scope and ultimate scientific importance, but they all also recognize that we put a face and a humanity to the space program that they can’t match to this day.
Let those disbelieve at their own peril. Great stuff, I’m a fan.
Peace from the Far East.
BAATSEBA on August 26, 2009 at 4:30 am: 3
Sounds confusing..hope men really did set a foot on the moon..i mean children learn about this things,i learnt about it..hope we are not being taught a lie
OnTheFence on August 28, 2009 at 10:58 am: 4
Do you not wonder why the Russians just gave up? They where the leaders in space exploration, it seems strange to me that they would give up, second place for such a feet is still worth it!
Astroprof on August 28, 2009 at 2:20 pm: 5
They gave up because the crash of their N1 rocket killed most of their rocket scientists that were working to get to the Moon. Besides, second place was not their way.
kc1027 on October 19, 2009 at 9:54 am: 6
anyone who believes we didnt go to the moon is an idiot. my fiances grandfather worked with NASA on the missions…