I’m so glad we agree on this. ‘People’ are rabid for a conspiracy. Think about the complexity of what you’re proposing. Come on.

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

They couldnt make a decent car in 69
How the hell did they make a space ship.
Blue peter!

Apollo mission astronauts placed reflective equipment on the moon in order to allow precise measurements of its orbit. These objects are visible through a telescope.

[Link]

This fact renders all moon landing conspiracy theories bollocks.

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The Ferret
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It's a compelling idea with logical reasoning but most of the evidence for a fake landing does not hold up to scrutiny.

I can see the propaganda value of getting there before the Russians and that a plan to fake it might have been an option if the Russians looked like they might go, but the fact is that the Russian space effort was largely smoke and mirrors. They were nowhere near going to the Moon. The Americans might not have known that at the time of course but in any case, why spend billions of dollars on a space program if you planned to fake it?. It could only logically have been a fallback plan if they weren't ready. In that case, how does one explain the subsequent missions which had very little propaganda value?

The best evidence I have seen for the fake camp is a film of the Astronauts apparently faking the size of Earth through the capsule window and the supposed prompts from NASA as when to speak. I'd like to see that explained.

A much more interesting conspiracy is whether we stopped going to the moon of if we continued in secret and built bases on the dark side. That would explain a lot about not returning and the tales of Moon bases and space personnel that have been circulating.

And don't forget those aLiens.

I think Occam's Razor deals with most of this. The Yamks when to the moon to score off the Russians and because they thought it might be strategically useful. When they got there they found it was pants so stopped bothering their arses as soon as the USSR jacked it in. The only other people to visit the moon were Wallace and Gromit.

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The Ferret
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The obvious reason why we have not been back to the Moon is that it is very expensive and of little scientific value. The official line is that NASA budget was cut drastically after the Moon missions and even the Sky Lab was partly made from spare parts to save money.

One possible clue to the US military ambitions in space is that the Space Shuttle was originally designed to be a much sleeker more agile craft but ended up being like a flying brick to accommodate military insistence that it could carry large payloads.

What did they want to put in space?

Obviously, a financial incentive like mining minerals might make it viable for commercial interests to return to the Moon but technology has to make it practical and economic.

Of course, travelling to Mars would be easier and cheaper from the Moon providing that the facilities were in place already.