Did US Astronaut land on the moon for real?

[Zucca]

At 02:56 UTC July 21, 1969.

After watching First Man:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213641/

I was disappointed to see some lack of enginnering details and a lot romance in it. I was expectiong something like the Martian with much more "realistic" technical discussions.
Anyway I started to think about the technical problems they needed to solve/manage, and the more I think the more I got pushed in the "never happened" bucket.

When an Italian like me, with spanish money, discovered America we returned to that land more and more. Do they never went back to the moon? Not even once?

In my heart I believe a man was walking on the moon, but my brain is still not 100% convinced. It seems technically impossible. Please help.

PS: Am I becoming like a flat earth guy? 

PPS: Any good book I can read on this topic?

This pictures still just fascinate me:

[Benta]

Groan!

[In Vacuo Veritas]

Perhaps you are very stupid? It's possible. The amount of things people did over the years that you believe happened include:

World War II. I'm supposed to believe we started a war in 1939 with propeller airplanes and telegrams and ended it with missiles, drones, jet fighters, digital voice encryption, and nuclear weapons? WWII was a nuclear war, after all. And we fought WWI with horses.

You believe that.

People built an airplane that could fly 3 times the speed of sound within 15 years after the end of WWII?

Worse, they built a *bomber* that could fly at Mach 3 while you wear a short-sleeve shirt piloting it.

Then they came up with the "Concorde", an airplane they claim could carry passengers at Mach 2 over the ocean?

I never saw one. And now they tell me it doesn't exist anymore?

Very suspicious.

"When an Italian like me, with spanish money, discovered America we returned to that land more and more."

Because you could FLOAT there with a boat made from trees with 15th century technology, breathe the air on the way and find food in the water.

Plus you had land to steal, people to kill, spices to sell.

The Moon is a dead rock. The USA went there as a promotional stunt to sell capitalism.

Which is very odd because NASA is a socialist non-profit organization that beat the Soviet "design bureaus" that all competed against each other like corporations.

[rstofer]

If it was faked, how has the secret been kept for nearly 50 years?  Thousands of people would have been involved in the conspiracy including the media and we know they can't keep a secret.  Somebody would have written a book just before they died!

The first landing was the greatest technological achievement of all time.  Here it is, nearly 50 years later, and no country has come close to recreating it.

We made 6 landings and 12 astronauts have walked on the surface.

[bsudbrink]

Plus the Soviet Union would have loved to prove it fake.

[Zucca]

Perhaps you are very stupid?

You can't imagine how many mistakes I did in the past. Opening a therad like this was the last one. 

[coppice]

Plus the Soviet Union would have loved to prove it fake.

You don't see this said often enough. Its an absolute killer for any ideas of a conspiracy..... unless the Soviet Union's military industrial complex was colluding with the American one to keep military spending flowing. 

[In Vacuo Veritas]

Perhaps you are very stupid?

You can't imagine how many mistakes I did in the past. Opening a therad like this was the last one. 

Hmm. So you CAN learn? So all is not lost!

I think Antarctica is fake. How can it be cold there if the sun shines during the day? It's warm here at the same time!

[bsudbrink]

Plus the Soviet Union would have loved to prove it fake.

unless the Soviet Union's military industrial complex was colluding with the American one to keep military spending flowing. 

If that's the case, you'd better question what you had for breakfast this morning and whether the sun did, in fact, rise.

[Zucca]

Hmm. So you CAN learn? So all is not lost!
I think Antarctica is fake. How can it be cold there if the sun shines during the day? It's warm here at the same time!

I always try to be polite and respectful, it gives a good feeling...

[bsudbrink]

In all seriousness, if you find yourself frequently having thoughts of this nature, you might want to check with your healthcare provider.  I had an uncle who started having "strange thoughts" (he recognized this himself).  He went to a doctor and it was discovered that he was having micro-strokes.  They were able to treat him and prevent worse.

[JPortici]

PS: Am I becoming like a flat earth guy? 

No, you are just experiencing burnout Just half an hour before the holidays (and snowboarding like there's no tomorrow)

[Zucca]

No, you are just experiencing burnout

Could be, I was 5 months on business trip (today last day) this year.

[ebastler]

You can't imagine how many mistakes I did in the past. Opening a therad like this was the last one. 

It was only the most recent one, I'm afraid. 

[Ice-Tea]

When an Italian like me, with spanish money, discovered America we returned to that land more and more.

And returned with boats filled with gold and silver. They returned with dust and rocks.

Do they never went back to the moon? Not even once?

They returned several times, there were several Appolo missions after the first landing?

Perhaps you are very stupid? It's possible.

Totally uncalled for. Asking questions is never the stupid thing to do.

[Zucca]

It was only the most recent one, I'm afraid. 

 

[JPortici]

You can't imagine how many mistakes I did in the past. Opening a therad like this was the last one. 

It was only the most recent one, I'm afraid. 

change last with latest

[Simon]

Perhaps you are very stupid? It's possible. The amount of things people did over the years that you believe happened include:

Not any more stupid than the guy I constantly get moderation reports about! YOU!

The best thing was to just report this tread as off topic (we don't do conspiracies), but you were not that clever and had to start with an insult.

[forrestc]

I was disappointed to see some lack of enginnering details and a lot romance in it. I was expectiong something like the Martian with much more "realistic" technical discussions.
Anyway I started to think about the technical problems they needed to solve/manage, and the more I think the more I got pushed in the "never happened" bucket.

When an Italian like me, with spanish money, discovered America we returned to that land more and more. Do they never went back to the moon? Not even once?

The US went to the moon on military spending during the cold war.   Beating the Russians was a strong motivator to spend the money necessary - about $200 billion USD equivalent in today's money.  The methods used were also not designed to be replicated in a long-term way - that is, the goal was to prove we could go to the moon, not build the infrastructure and technology necessary to go to the moon on an ongoing basis.   Once the goal was met, the US congress didn't see much reason to continue to spend money to go to the moon (been there, done that), and the funding was cut.     

One should note that we landed on the moon not once, but six times.   Apollo 11 through 17, not counting Apollo 13.   Apollo Missions 18-20 were planned but cut due to budgets.

All of the space work we've been doing ever since (Shuttle, various launch platforms, etc), have been to build that infrastructure to put us back in space on a permanent, affordable, basis.   For instance, we have an international space station which has been continuously occupied since 2000 which shows how much we've learned about actually living in space, as opposed to a week long visit to the moon.

In my heart I believe a man was walking on the moon, but my brain is still not 100% convinced. It seems technically impossible. Please help.

PPS: Any good book I can read on this topic?

If you can get a copy of the miniseries 'From the Earth to the Moon', that would be a good set to watch video-wise.

There are lots of good books out there documenting various parts of the entire US space program.   I guess it really depends on what parts you are interested in.   

[In Vacuo Veritas]

Not any more stupid than the guy I constantly get moderation reports about! YOU!

Look at it this way: job security for you!

Happy holidays BTW

[Zucca]

The best thing was to just report this tread as off topic (we don't do conspiracies), but you were not that clever and had to start with an insult.

Sorry Simon, my mistake. You can lock it, yesterday with my colleagues was a nice technical discussion at dinner. I thought it could happen the same here. Oh well...

[glarsson]

I can't belive you can take some beach sand, melt it, shine some light on it and then use it to post messages that I can read on my phone. Therefore this thread does not exist.

[coppercone2]

i think the main problem that results in this line of thinking is that most people don't see people cooperating in the same way that people did for the space program because it was such an awesome thing and there was all this patriotism, national spirit, pride, military stuff involved, and the sci-fi leading up to the lunar landings post ww2 was just outragous so people cooperated in a way that most of us never saw possible (compared to some kinda company where no one really gives a fuck and its a grind)... so the amount of progress made in a short period of time seems unlikely.

you can try building or buying stuff that was used and testing it to convince yourself? and talk to people that worked on the effort (like machinists that mailed in home made parts to aerospace companies).

i don't think you can look at how much money was thrown at the problem only, you need to see how highly motivated the people working on it were. there was a serious golden bullet mentality that really motivated people but unfortunately other then communications systems and hard to explain physics verifications its not as fruitful as we thought with finding an alien civilization in 1970, building a extra solar base by the year 2000, etc.

I think there is a groupthink from a management prospective now to avoid this kind of zealous behavior in general when it comes to big projects. because we got people on the moon but places don't have good roads, so like people are wary about overworking themselves and putting personal time into projects and over budgeting stuff.

they say scifi never gets it right, but what scifi does show is a measure of cultural emphasis on the importance of an issue (to a degree).

[Zero999]

Perhaps you are very stupid?

You can't imagine how many mistakes I did in the past. Opening a therad like this was the last one. 

Hmm. So you CAN learn? So all is not lost!

I think Antarctica is fake. How can it be cold there if the sun shines during the day? It's warm here at the same time!

Actually most of Antarctica is in darkness for 24 hours per day, when it's warm in Canada.

[coppice]

Perhaps you are very stupid?

You can't imagine how many mistakes I did in the past. Opening a therad like this was the last one. 

Hmm. So you CAN learn? So all is not lost!

I think Antarctica is fake. How can it be cold there if the sun shines during the day? It's warm here at the same time!

Actually most of Antarctica is in darkness for 24 hours per day, when it's warm in Canada.

So, that's why polar bears don't eat penguins. They can't find them in the dark.