# Faked moon launch? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 28, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234 "2003-09-28T01:19:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/41 "2003-09-29T07:43:14Z")
I’m not sure where that came from **Mr. B**. Do you think that all scientific projects that are underway should be cancelled unexpectedly at the drop of a hat because of a freak heat wave, even when said projects have been planned since [1998](http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=31208&fareaid_1=10&fareaid_2=63&farchive_objecttypeid=12&farchive_objectid=30910&fchoice=-1&startz=21&startpage=1)? The whole point of this moon probe is that it’s an example of _cheaper_ space research. Not huge, extremely expensive, pork barrel manned missions, but carefully planned, useful, lightweight, relatively inexpensive missions. That’s the whole point of the name of the mission! SMART-1 = _Small_ Missions for Advanced Research in Technology. And comparing a worthwhile scientific experiment that’s obviously been planned with an eye towards efficiency and economy to “20-hand Andalusians” is, IMO, more than slightly ridiculous. If you’re of the opinion that space research should not be done in general, and that all money for research should be spent directly on things with immediate tangible here on earth, then why don’t you just say so? Why bash the Europeans specifically? Recent NASA [url=http://www.nasa.gov/news/launches/index.html] launches include a new Mars rover on July 7th, a Canadian satellite on August 12th, and an infrared telescope on August 25th. Doesn’t the US have “better” things they could spend that money on? ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/42 "2003-09-29T07:44:38Z")
[fixed url](http://www.nasa.gov/news/launches/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/43 "2003-09-29T07:48:43Z")
I love how a wacky Pit thread has morphed into something like a GQ thread. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/44 "2003-09-29T07:56:54Z")
Could God make an Ariane-5 so big, that even he couldn’t provide enough thrust for it to make it to space? ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/45 "2003-09-29T08:57:49Z")
I don’t know **Brutus**. Maybe humans weren’t meant to go whooshing around in outer space. So they have to do the equivalent of getting out an slowly pushing the car in the right direction. One little push at a time. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/46 "2003-09-29T09:10:52Z")
It is fake, there’s no doubt about it; I held up a tape measure to the image on my screen and that rocket is less than an inch tall - how could anyone be taken in by such a transparent ruse? ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/47 "2003-09-29T11:45:53Z")
Fake. The following facts make this undisputable. - You can’t see any stars. - Everyone knows the European technology is too primitive to manage this. - Real rocket flames are orange! - Who was taking the photogaph? It looks like the rocket is about 100 yards away. If this was a real he would be fried by the flames. - The smoke kinda makes the shape of dead comedian Bob Hope, a detail obviously added to the photo by a whistle-blower on the inside. This is to let smart people who can spot it know that the whole thing is a joke. - Bob Hope was going to tell everyone this, so they killed him. - The dumb-asses have **forgotten** to attach the space shuttle to the rocket!! They obviously only realized after they had faked these pictures. - Isn’t Guiana American anyway? I have no idea, but it’s worth mentioning since I’m working from a position of complete ignorance for all my other points anyway. - Hang on, - it’s **French** Guiana. I have no point to convey here, I’m appealing to your natural prejudices. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/48 "2003-09-29T12:04:47Z")
The contemptable french have a Guiana? We damned well better get one quickly, lest an unsurmountable Guiana-gap should develop! ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/49 "2003-09-29T12:23:39Z")
Obviously. There was no sound, either. Shouldn’t rockets make a deep vroom vroom noise or something? ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/50 "2003-09-29T13:30:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slortar \* > \*\*Obviously. There was no sound, either. Shouldn’t rockets make a deep vroom vroom noise or something? \*\* They had to erase the soundtrack, otherwise you can hear the French “controllers” speaking. Everyone knows that countdowns have to be in American, cos that’s what the numbers are in. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/51 "2003-09-29T13:51:34Z")
I forgot to mention the presence of miniature alien spaceships in the photograph. ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/52 "2003-09-29T15:17:01Z")
What are those things that seem to ‘zip’ through the photograph? I’m pretty sure I can see the ghosts from Apollo I in that photo also. [sub]See, having watched _something_ break out of our atmosphere from Sarasota on a clear day is one of my oldest childhood memories. We’ve been doing it ever since. If it is a fake, the brainwashing of the participants is better than that accomplished in The Manchurian Candidate (a movie).[/sub] Anyway, could you escape our mini (micro?), upper, gravity at a creep, or not? I think if you could the calculations would be tough, what with all the orbits. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/53 "2003-09-29T15:36:50Z")
Did I see the face of Satan in the smoke? ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/54 "2003-09-29T19:59:34Z")
The Europeans are sending the probe to the moon to mine it for green cheese. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/55 "2003-09-30T11:15:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mangetout \* > \*\*It is fake, there’s no doubt about it; I held up a tape measure to the image on my screen and that rocket is less than an inch tall - how could anyone be taken in by such a transparent ruse? \*\* It needs to be at least … three times bigger than that. [sub]Apologies to Zoolander[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/56 "2003-09-30T12:50:11Z")
Didn’t anyone else see that under the flag picture was the barely ledgible phrase “batteries not included”? …then again, with cut backs to the European space program, it still might be their real launch vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234/57 "2003-09-30T16:08:06Z")
It has to be a fake. The news report I saw claimed the probe to be the size of a toaster. Since French Toast is not made on a stovetop, the fraud is obvious for all to see. This post composed in France. :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faked-moon-launch/204234.md?page=2)