Of course, but military priority at the time was to "Win" as Kennedy had stated and as a last resort I think it is fair to say that trickery could and would be used
So you honestly believe that NASA would be willing to completely destroy the United States reputation? They would have known in 1969 that the hoax would fail sooner or later... why would they do it?
First of all, they would have had to not only convince the general public that the landings were real,
Let me just say "War of The Worlds" and Christianity
Only a small number of gullible fools believed the "War of the Worlds" broadcast was a real Martian invasion... just like how only a small number of gullible fools believe the Moon hoax theory.
It sounds like a daunting task but how many people are working on top secret military programs this very minute? Where are all of those military or non military scientists and engineers and why do they not expose these programs?
There is a HUGE difference between a top secret military program to design a new stealth airplane, for example, and trying to pull of a huge lie right out in the open in front of everyone.
NASA had over 400,000 employees during Apollo... and you're saying not a single one of them has a guilty conscience? Not one of them has ever sent an anonymous letter to a major newspaper?
Interesting point as I am sure the Russians were watching, but not expecting a fake moon shot and could have been caught off guard. Slieght of hand and deception are tools wielded by magicians and they can and have fooled millions of people time and time again.
Explain to me how NASA could make a spacecraft appear to go to the Moon without actually sending it there. All the magic in the world won't fool radar tracking.
Can you direct me to where I can find information that Russians obtained as they monitored our program, I would like to look into that and see if we can know what they knew. I will try a web search and see what I can come up with.
It's quite simple, really. They've had over 30 years to examine the Apollo missions... I'm sure they've even heard all of the hoax theories by now... and yet they haven't come forward to say these hoax theories have merit.
As far as KGB agents infiltrating NASA is concerned, it's only a hunch. The CIA obtained top secret information from the Russian space program, so I'm sure they were doing the same thing... and it would have been easier for them because NASA did everything in the open.
But here's a clue that maybe the Russians have spied on NASA in the past... do you think it's a coincidence that the Russian space shuttle Buran looks almost identical to the American space shuttle?
Faking it would of course be a complex and costly task, but the more complex the task the less likely people would think it was fake.
Huh?
The more complex something is, the more likely it is to fail. Simple = easy, complex = hard.
President Nixon couldn't even cover up the Watergate incident... none of his Presidential power could keep it a secret. President Clinton couldn't keep his private life private. And in comparison to the Moon hoax those lies are small.
Once again we have many top secret programs going on at this moment. Are you suggesting we have to bribe all our military and all these other people to maintain our secrets.
Like I said, military programs are conducted out of the public eye... Apollo wasn't. Thousands of people witnessed every Saturn V launch. Amateur astronomers witnesses the spacecrafts making course corrections through their telescopes, and they even saw the cloud of debris around the Apollo 13 capsule after the accident. HAM radio operators listened to the communications and were able to study the dopler effect to show that the transmissions were actually coming from the Moon.
If you were to try to pull off a lie that big you would find there are so many variables that determine success or failure that you couldn't possibly control it. It would be like trying to predict the weather 10 years in advance, there are too many variables that you can't predict or control.
Some people are motivated by more than just money. Also, information on military projects is given on a need to know basis, this confidentiality allows missions to be carried out with out disclosing information that could aid the enemy.
Then why did NASA broadcast every Saturn V launch on national TV? Why did they make "top secret information" available to the public through the "Freedom of Information Act"?
I've got a book that tells me everything about the rockets and the spacecraft... right down to the weight of the ice that formed on the sides of the rockets before launch.
And just say they did bribe a few. At a million a head and threat of death they could easily do 1000 people for a mere billion. That's a fraction of the cost of the space launch. Toss a few billion at some other countries for hush money and it would still be cheaper to pull off.
But what is keeping people from taking the bribes but exposing the hoax anyway? Let's say I'm a former NASA engineer and I've got proof the program was faked. I could very easily drive 100 miles to a different town and use a public library or cybercafe to send all of the damning evidence to a hundred news outlets in a single email. The government would never know it was me, so how could they hurt me?
And what is stopping one of the bribed countries from exposing the hoax? The US has it's hands full with Afghanistan and Iraq... would they really want to go to war with China right now if they tried to expose the hoax?
And what would be the point of the hoax in the first place if enemy governments knew about it and had to be bribed to keep it quiet? I thought the point was to fool those governments, not to hand them billions of dollars for no reason.
So let's do the math:
NASA's budget between 1962 and 1970 was roughly
$32,555,607,000 (but let's say $33 billion). Note that that is NASA's entire budget, Apollo's funding was just part of that.
$33 billion
-
$1 billion to bribe a thousand NASA employees (a thousand people is a tiny percentage of the NASA employees)
-
$1 billion for every world government capable of detecting the hoax. Australia, Canada, England, China, Korea, Japan, Russia, Germany, and France are just some of the countries that have radar capabilities & radio antennas. There are more. But those countries alone would make
$9 billion.
So far we have taken $10 billion out of NASA's budget just to bribe people.
You would then still have the normal NASA employee salaries, the normal rocket developement costs (we know they worked, people saw them launch), spacecraft developement (even if they weren't fully functional they were still built), infrastruct (buildings, launch towers, etc.), the cost of diverting the Navy to recover the spacecraft after the mission, and then you have the top secret hoax expenses that we aren't supposed to know about... for example, they would have had to build secret movie sets that accurately represent the Moon.
NASA is not a military organization, and not all of the astronauts were in the military.
Need I post the entire page form the NASA history page on its website?
Go for it. You won't find anything that says it is a military organization.
NASA's birth was directly related to the pressures of national defense. After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in the Cold War, a broad contest over the ideologies and allegiances of the nonaligned nations. During this period, space exploration emerged as a major area of contest and became known as the space race.
That doesn't change the fact that it is a civilian organization. The head of NASA does not have a military rank, NASA does not have offices in the Pentagon.
NASA was clearly formed as a military department stemming form the department of defense.
It has is roots in national defence but it is not military. General Motors built Jeeps for the army... are they a department of the military too? Boeing and Lockheed Martin build military planes, but they are civilian companies that are traded on the stock exchange.
Having ties to the military does not make NASA part of the military. They are a scientific research agency.
Tha was not an option. As they felt is imperative that the US win the race to prove their superiority over Russia and communism.
That is where the hoax theory fails time and time again. First the hoax believer will say the purpose of the hoax is to fool the Russians, and then when I point out that the Russians had the means to expose the hoax they turn around and say the Russians were in on the hoax and were bribed to stay quiet.
Which is it? Was the point of the hoax to fool the Russians, or were they in on it? If they were in on it, what was the point of faking the Moon landings in the first place?
That is a very important point. If you can't answer it then retire from the hoax debate because there is no point in continuing.
First of all, Neil Armstrong did successfully fly the lunar landing training vehicle (LLTV) on more than one occassion. I have the video footage to prove it.
Please post the name of the vidieo and where I can find it.
Apollo 11: Men on the Moon, 3 DVD's, available from the Spacecraftfilms.com website or in some stores.
I would like to see it myself and then compare it to the one at the library. Perhaps it was made at a later date.
I can guaranty that the films were made exactly when NASA claims they were. How do I know that? Because after Neil Armstrong ejected from the only existing LLTV, destroying the vehicle, they couldn't have gone back to make more film footage later.
And amazingly they got it right on the very 1st time even after you admit it was not even close to a perfect way to practice. Sounds like a suicide mission to me then.
The lunar module was tested in Earth orbit during the Apollo 9 mission, and in Lunar orbit during Apollo 10.
But I would like to know why you believe these vehicles can't work? The principles are fairly simple... gyroscopes are used to keep the vehicle balanced, it's the same principle that Robert Goddard used on the very first liquid fueled rocket decades before Apollo. It's the same principle that guided the much, much, larger Saturn V rockets on a safe trajectory. If a Saturn V can fly safely without going off course, why can't a lunar module?
LunarOrbit