Did We Go To The Moon? Of Course We Did (With Sources)
I almost hope that no one reads this. Inspired by a conversation on Facebook.

This is the second edition of what I want to be a series that will allow me to better my writing skills. All of the articles in this series will have the ending “Of Course… (With Sources),” and they will be heavily fact-driven and explanatory. As time goes on, I hope to improve my writing.
Anyway.. So the Moon right?
I had a conversation — more of a short exchange in the comments — with someone that I know that, apparently, does not believe we landed on the Moon. I know there are millions of people who believe in conspiracy theories, but knowing someone, from your town, who is around your age, that thinks that way, is a little baffling. So maybe that’s why I wrote this.
Let’s just get into it.
So how come we haven’t gone back to the Moon?
First of all, here is a full list of attempts, failures, and successes to put something on or orbiting around the Moon. The U.S. alone has had over ten successful landing missions, including the first and most famous manned landing Apollo 11. We went to the Moon several times after.
Second, it is very expensive
The Apollo missions required a 36-story rocket.
Let’s just let that sink in a moment.
I work on the 34th floor. To go to the moon, we needed a rocket two floors taller than my office if you count the launch escape tower. In 2016 dollars, it cost $711 million to build a Saturn V — that’s just to build it, not to fly it. For comparison, the 86-year-old, 102-story Empire State Building cost $637 million in 2016 dollars. But the Saturn wasn’t built to keep and use for 86 years, it was built to go up on a pillar of flame and be reduced over the next few days into dust, debris, and a few precious keepsakes.
People say space travel is so expensive because it’s like throwing away a jumbo jet at the end of every trip. No, it’s like throwing away an Empire State Building at the end of every trip, or crashing a jumbo jet into two more sitting on the ground.

Not only is it expensive, but it isn’t worth it. NASA had $18.5 billion in 2016. The risk of failure is too much to take a chance on 4% of the budget per mission. More importantly, there is not much on the Moon that needs to be studied that can’t be studied by orbiters and rovers with cameras. Besides, there is no longer a space arms race. The general public do not care that much about going to the Moon anymore.
But there are no stars in the pictures!

Yes, there are no stars in the Apollo photographs. Luckily, photography classes can teach you why.
Long exposure v.s short exposure is a key difference to note here.
Since the photographer was continually trying to capture images in the foreground, they used a short exposure, which wouldn’t be able to pick up the dimly lit stars. However, if they used a long exposure, focusing on the background, you would be able to see the stars while the foreground would be even fuzzier.
But humans can’t even survive the radiation while exiting our atmosphere!

Well, yeah, but that’s what ships and suits are for. On the way to the Moon, just right outside of Earth, is the Van Allen radiation belt. Conspiracy theorists say that it is impossible to pass through the belt without being vaporized. That would be true if our astronauts were traveling in a cardboard box instead of a incredibly expensive, highly advanced, aluminum-coated spaceship.
Their walking is all wrong. They’re using hidden cables to jump around.
This video is one of a few that show the astronauts jumping. Some will tell you that there are hidden cables, allowing the astronauts to fake a difference in gravity.
Well the Moon’s gravity is 1/6 of the Earth’s gravity. That means if you were 240 pounds on Earth, you’d feel like 40 pounds on the Moon.
This perfectly explains why the astronauts’ jumps and falls look a little funny. Have you ever jumped up and down or picked someone up in water? Everything seems light. It is a similar concept. If you have the muscle to lift in a jump, then imagine what you could do if your body weight was now that of a small child.
Stanley Kubrick helped NASA fake the Moon landing.

Okay, first of all, in my opinion, if legendary director Stanley Kubrick directed and faked the Moon landings, they’d look a lot better. Kubrick was a perfectionist and he took a long time to perfect his films. Hell, A Space Odyssey (1968) took three years to film. So you are telling me that Kubrick finished that movie and immediately started on a new one, finishing it in less than a year? I don’t think so. A Clockwork Orange was another three years later, in 1971. His next movie would be in 1975 then again in 1980 and so on. It is obvious that Kubrick takes time on his films. And if you think that the incredibly stubborn and perfectionist director is going to have the government tell him what to do and rush one of his masterpieces, then you don’t know Kubrick at all.
Anything else?
There are too many other points for me to go into, so I debated the most important ones. However, nearly all conspiracy theories have two things in common: cognitive dissonance and a distrust of authority.
At the end of the day, people will believe what they want, no matter the facts. Everyone who tells them otherwise is a moron, a shill, or a sheep.
Luckily, science is true whether you believe in it or not, and those who know the least will always argue that they know the most.
I will leave you with some quotes. Thank you for reading (1, 2, 3)
But the essence of conspiracy theorizing is, I think, universal in human beings. People have a natural tendency to be suspicious of groups that are powerful and potentially hostile.
Although conspiracy beliefs can occasionally be based on a rational analysis of the evidence, most of the time they are not. As a species, one of our greatest strengths is our ability to find meaningful patterns in the world around us and to make causal inferences. We sometimes, however, see patterns and causal connections that are not there, especially when we feel that events are beyond our control.
I think some people who believe in conspiracy theories believe in those ideas because it restores a sense of agency. It gives them a sense of power. It gives them a sense that they can do something about the world.
