So $28 billion is way too expensive?? It's funny how we can spend $5 billion per month on war -- something that tears nations and peoples apart -- and not have money for the advancement of mankind.
I agree with you. The claim that "we'll do it in 10 years" only feeds my suspicion that we most likely did not go in the first place. That's why NASA is the shameful bore that it is now, lackluster and dull; too busy covering its lies.
We should've had a moon base long ago. The argument "been there done that" has no merit. This is not a family picnic trip to the Yosemite! It's the moon! Why build a space station when we could've had a moon station? Blaming it on money is a cheap excuse. Going back (assuming we went) and establishing a permanent base on the moon is only a natural step towards expanded space exploration.
Here are some news stories about how the original moon landing tapes got lost and found and lost again and found again. It's ludicrous.
(And get this....where were the original video tapes of the moon landing found?? Of all places, in AUSTRALIA!! Of course! That's believable!)
Audio Tapes related to moon landing discovered? Hence they were lost some time ago.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1552367.stm (9/19/01)
Lost Again??
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1715780.htm (8/2006)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4791883.stm (8/2006)
Lost Moon Landing Tapes Discovered?
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/818 (11/2006)
(Note: Those original tapes differed from the copies we currently have mainly in that the original were higher-quality pieces...and thus they could be used to give better data to verify the landings. It's hard to believe that the most extraordinary achievement of mankind could end up getting lost over and over again.)
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Just because people saw them "going up" and that they indeed "went up" doesn't mean they reached the destination. Naughty kids that skip school do indeed set out on a trip to go to school; whether they get there or not is another matter.
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Just because we have moon rocks doesn't prove that we went there and got 'em. We have rocks from Mars! Remember the big commotion a little over a decade ago about the probability of life on Mars? (http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9608/06/mars.life/index.html) Well that meteorite which contained that evidence was taken from Antarctica, not Mars... it simply fell to the Earth.
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Recently, a European spacecraft orbiting the moon was supposed to "kill" this "conspiracy theory" by simply photographing the Apollo landing sites -- a very good idea that I support.
But guess what?
According to these newstories, even though those sites were photographed, those pictures haven't been released... Well at least not yet. Note: It's been over 2 years since that story was released and as far as I know, those pictures haven't yet been released...
If anyone knows if they have been released, I'd appreciate them posting that evidence, for my edification, in order to finally put a nail in the coffin for this "myth."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7091082/
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2005-03-04-moon-landing-snoop_x.htm
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I'm not saying that I believe with certainty that the moon landing was a hoax. I simply don't know; I'd like to believe it happened. But I can't simply accept that it happened based on the good intentions of the people involved (or of the bad intentions of governments, local and foreign) nor on anecdotal evidence. Most people simply aren't trustworthy. Hence the need for verifiable, unbiased evidence. This is not a matter of proving that the landing never took place, its about proving that it happened. The onus is on the believers to prove it.
Still, I think the retroreflectors placed there are probably the best evidence. But those can be placed via unmanned probes, right? I just believe the opposition has some credible points that still haven't been resolved.
Dismissing conspiracy theorists by categorizing them as crazy and throwing insults doesn't prove anything. The truth should be irrefutable. I'll wait until 2008 for the trailblazer to put this matter to rest or until some real evidence surfaces.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_moon_landing_hoax_accusations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_evidence_for_Apollo_Moon_landings