Moon Patrol
For those of you who don't know, we landed on the moon for the first time on July 20th, 1969. For some of us it's hard to beleive mankind achieved such an incredible feat of engineering. It's especially difficult for these people:
http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicapollo.html
http://www.moonhoax.com/
http://www.moonmovie.com/
There is a whole internet community out there debating over whether or not we actually went to the moon. The conspiracy theorists believe that the video footage and pictures documenting the astronauts' journeys on the moon were faked in a large studio environment. These alarmists claim that there are anomalies in the video footage and pictures that suggest they were faked.
Fortunately, there are many websites that explain away these supposed anomolies:
http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html
http://www.redzero.demon.co.uk/moonhoax/

I find the debate extremely interesting. It shows the thought process of conspiracy theorists, but it also demonstrates how hard it is to actually prove anything. I've read all the arguments on both sides and I've looked at the footage myself. I've been looking for evidence that we've been to the moon, something that the conspiracy theorists couldn't say was faked.
Here is my top 5 list of irrefutable evidence we went to the moon:
5) The surface of the moon is very dusty. However, since there is no atmosphere, the spray of dust from the astronauts' boots as they walk, and from the lunar rover's wheels does not create clouds of visible dust that linger as they would on Earth. Dust particles follow arcs through the vacuum of space and quickly settle.
4) We have long, continuous video of the lunar module's descent from several thousand feet to the surface of the moon. This footage, as well as other similar video footage, could simply not be faked.

3) Hundreds of scientists have written hundreds of papers analyzing the geologic nature of the moon rocks we brought back with us. The overwhelming conclusion is that the rocks are indeed from the moon, they did not come from a moon meteorite, and they could not have been faked.
2) Occam's razor. Staging the moon landing is nearly as great a feat as actually going there. Erecting an extremely large set, putting all the technology in place to make it look like we were going to the moon, lying to the control room operators (or were they in on it?) manufacturing moon rocks, it's too much.
1) We put reflectors on the moon during Apollo missions 11, 14 and 15. Scientists and amatuer astronomers alike have successfully bounced laser beams off the moon.
NASA's defense is... well you don't need to defend yourself when the whole thing is extensively documented and publicly available:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/alsj-video.html
Also, the European Space Agency's SMART-1 Probe is now in orbit around the moon and ESA scientists intend to photograph the moon landing site. So we may not have long to wait for the debate to end once and for all.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2005-03-04-moon-landing-snoop_x.htm
http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicapollo.html
http://www.moonhoax.com/
http://www.moonmovie.com/
There is a whole internet community out there debating over whether or not we actually went to the moon. The conspiracy theorists believe that the video footage and pictures documenting the astronauts' journeys on the moon were faked in a large studio environment. These alarmists claim that there are anomalies in the video footage and pictures that suggest they were faked.
Fortunately, there are many websites that explain away these supposed anomolies:
http://www.braeunig.us/space/hoax.htm
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html
http://www.redzero.demon.co.uk/moonhoax/

I find the debate extremely interesting. It shows the thought process of conspiracy theorists, but it also demonstrates how hard it is to actually prove anything. I've read all the arguments on both sides and I've looked at the footage myself. I've been looking for evidence that we've been to the moon, something that the conspiracy theorists couldn't say was faked.
Here is my top 5 list of irrefutable evidence we went to the moon:
5) The surface of the moon is very dusty. However, since there is no atmosphere, the spray of dust from the astronauts' boots as they walk, and from the lunar rover's wheels does not create clouds of visible dust that linger as they would on Earth. Dust particles follow arcs through the vacuum of space and quickly settle.
4) We have long, continuous video of the lunar module's descent from several thousand feet to the surface of the moon. This footage, as well as other similar video footage, could simply not be faked.

3) Hundreds of scientists have written hundreds of papers analyzing the geologic nature of the moon rocks we brought back with us. The overwhelming conclusion is that the rocks are indeed from the moon, they did not come from a moon meteorite, and they could not have been faked.
2) Occam's razor. Staging the moon landing is nearly as great a feat as actually going there. Erecting an extremely large set, putting all the technology in place to make it look like we were going to the moon, lying to the control room operators (or were they in on it?) manufacturing moon rocks, it's too much.
1) We put reflectors on the moon during Apollo missions 11, 14 and 15. Scientists and amatuer astronomers alike have successfully bounced laser beams off the moon.
NASA's defense is... well you don't need to defend yourself when the whole thing is extensively documented and publicly available:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/alsj-video.html
Also, the European Space Agency's SMART-1 Probe is now in orbit around the moon and ESA scientists intend to photograph the moon landing site. So we may not have long to wait for the debate to end once and for all.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2005-03-04-moon-landing-snoop_x.htm