Moon Landing Denial: Out of This World

Yesterday was Moon Day, the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 14 moon landing. As someone that has always been intently interested in space, I took some time to research the event through various resources. As with any humanity-changing event, the detractors have taken it upon themselves to naysay the US exploration of the moon and proposed some rather elaborate conspiracy theories. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good conspiracy theory. The Di Vinci Code had me looking at the Pope with a raised eyebrow. These are the same types of people that believe the attacks on 9/11 were orchestrated by the government, AIDS is a man-made disease, and Scientologists & Jews run Hollywood. Its these types of shaky premises that make a good story, but offer little foundation.

Moon Day has help tame some of the rumors started by the moon landing deniers with new photos showing the original moon lander and the astronaut footprints on the surface of the moon. While this evidence certainly won’t convince a denier of the scientific truth, its a validation to those of us that want the evidence. The new satellite images come to us as a result of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft, which launched on 18 June. LRO’s mission is to photograph the moon to scout for future mission sites. So far, LRO has located five of the six Apollo missions that landed on the moon’s surface.

Large logical leaps must be taken to support a good conspiracy theory. If someone disagrees or shows skepticism, they could possibly be accused suppressing the “truth”. Although my faith in humanity runs keep, my faith in a person’s ability to keep a secret long-term is non-existent. If thousands of people had the ability to all keep their mouth shut at the same time, the paparazzi would be out of a job. With exclusive information comes the temptation to sell secrets. Its hard to believe that among all those “fake” NASA staffers, someone wouldn’t be willing to sell their story for a few million dollars.

I chose to embrace the research presented. After all, history is not the objective record of what has happened, but rather the record of perception. In my world, we landed on the moon have have 6 missions to prove it. How about you?

Photo: Brian Knight Photography

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