Like I said, some people, even your example’s educated Italian, start off with only fragmentary and indirect information about it, and as far as they are concerned, anything they hear about the actual moon landing is something they are being asked to accept “on faith”. So when someone comes around with a good-sounding objection or alternate-story, that seems just as valid and probably more interesting; and specially if it reinforces preexisting cultural prejudices. There is a significant segment of the population of developed countries (and of the educated classes overall) who have grown to be suspicious of anything Big Science and Big Business throws your way.
When considering moon landing skeptics among otherwise unexpected audiences, try and compare with the otherwise normal folk out there who were really, really impressed by The DaVinci Code’s fictional plot-device of Magdalene’s bloodline being actually true, because “hey, Brown says this is all based on facts” and “hey, everybody knows the Catholic Church is corrupt and oscurantist”. People want to believe there is some sort of nefarious conspiracy. Specially if the “conspirator” is one of the designated “Big Bad Bully” institutions such as the RCC or the US Government.
Radio and DF (‘direction finding’) is just about proof enough for anyone who understands math to any degree. They utilized oscillators as a reference standard on the “S” band, there is no way to fool all of the people all of the time.
Kubrick was part of the conspiracy, didn’t you know that? He was chosen to film the fake landing because of the superb special effects in 2001. Wait a minute … wait a minute … I’m getting another transmission through the fillings in my teeth … Kubrick was a Jew … it wasn’t NASA … it was the Jews!!! … can’t seem to adjust my tin foil hat correctly … I see things so much more clearly since I stopped taking my medication …
No, just unscrupulous people who will tell any ridiculous lie if by doing so they can attract an audience. In the case of the Fox documentary, they wanted to make money. It was the most contemptible thing Fox ever did, and that’s saying something.
As an engineer that works in a similar field and as an avid reader of history, I’ll address this. The Apollo engineers and astonauts were blessed with the kind of luck that often accompanies those who pioneer new technologies. They didn’t know that they ‘couldn’t’ do it, so out of ignorance and pure daring, they did it. Craft, Webb, Krantz, all admit they were on the edge of disaster quite often and were able to innovate on the fly to recover. I have the greatest respect for their accomplishments.
If you are not willing to read their accounts (shame on you), perhaps you will watch the “From the Earth to the Moon” series produced by Tom Hanks. As you’re watching it, remember these are not fictional characters. Just damned good engineers solving problems the right way: one at a time.
Bill Clinton has not written off the conspiracy theory and as a former President this is significant. Kind of makes you wonder what things he saw on TV that made him change his mind.
Cite? Bill Clinton is a smart guy, I think it is much more likely that the conspiracy theorists are quote mining than that he gives any credence to it.
I saw Apollo XVIII take off. That is a hell of a lot to spend on a conspiracy when they could have just cancelled more of the flights sooner.
I don’t think that’s what that quote means. It’s not saying that he now believes the old guy, he’s saying that seeing how inside-the-beltway works he now can understand how people can come to that sort of conclusion.
Note to Conspiracy Central: Find this **tdn ** person and have him/her/it terminated immediately. They know about Grissom! How the hell did they find out about Grissom!?
Aw, shit, now everybody who’s ever visited this board has to be killed. There are going to be questions. Lots and lots of questions!
(BTW, re people asking about the other Apollo missions, in my experience most of the “hoax believers” don’t even know that there was more than one manned moon landing. They think it was Neil and Buzz and that’s it.)
I’ve met a few South Africans (educated and seemingly intelligent) that think it was faked. I think many people have a fairly limited understanding of most scientific discoveries and achievements (and history). They get their information from the popular media and seldom bother investigating further. Some people just seem to think it is easier to believe in any conspiracy rather than get the facts.
One of the best series ever IMHO, by the way. If I remember correctly, it was Apollo 12 where they had to get the programmer out of bed so he could modify the program that controlled the LEM landing. Seems like (and I’m going from memory here, so somebody correct me, please), there was a bug where the abort sequence might automatically start while they were landing. So they show Ground Control reading off the program changes to the astronauts, so they could make the programming changes on their computer in the LEM while it’s orbiting the moon. So maybe they wouldn’t die whle they were landing.
Yeah, seat of the pants problem solving.
The increase of the moon landing conspiracy theorists makes me think that the '60’s are starting to be ancient history to some people who think that people then couldn’t have been quite as smart as they’re purported to have been. Kind of like ancient astronauts building the pyramids. I mean, how could a bunch of Egyptians have built them 3000 years ago – without computers, even?
In order for a telescope to resolve something that is one meter across at the earth-moon distance, the telescope’s collector would have to be close to 300 meters across. There is no way, even in theory, to get around this law. Hubble, with a diameter of about 2.5 meters, does not even come close. The smallest thing the Hubble could resolve on the moon would be 124 meters across, much larger than anything we left on the moon.
