Moon Gate (The Great Moon Hoax)

Member Name: buttonman

Product:	The Great Moon Hoax
Date:	28/11/01 (374 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Saves a long journey

Disadvantages: There will be no Santa next!

Isn't it great that any word at all can become sinister and contentious simply by adding the word 'gate'. Look at any tabloid or broad sheet for that matter to find watergate,butlergate cow and gate 'I'm just glad those burglars didn't rob the Beauffart Hotel!.

The Moon landings have for 30+ years represented the pinnacle of mankinds' achievements. If any sundry item fails to live up to expectations we all say "they can put a man on the Moon but they can't invent a non-squirt milk vessel/do dry cleaning well /find a job for Wincy Willis". Imagine if the conspiracy theorists were right we'd have to change our speech patterns to 'They dug the Suez Canal but they can't make a shirt that's not full of pins when you buy it!'

I for one believe that man has been to the Moon. The evidence for the landings is so overwhelming and the number of people who'd need to be involved in a cover up so large that it'd be impossible to fake. The conspiracy nuts' 'evidence' is underwhelming at best. Miles of footage has been scrutinised and thousands of photos analysed and the only evidence found is extremely subjective. Arguments about shadows that shouldn't be and blast marks that don't exist rumble on in internet chat rooms but to no conclusion. Some photos were missing their crosshairs, which should be positioned by the camera, and some film showed astronauts moving quicker than lunar gravity would allow. These arguments are dismissed by NASA who point out the anomalies are few and explainable amid millions of pieces of incontrovertible evidence.

But why bother? Well Kennedy did vow to get to the Moon in the 1960's and he made it albeit posthumously with five months to spare. The cold war was also at its height so any boost over the reds had to be welcomed. My problem is though is that literally thousands of people had to be working on the Moon landing and for no o
ne with credibility to speak out seems unlikely. They also went back to the Moon several times - why bother risking detection if the project was all a big fake?

The film 'Capricorn One' concerned a faked Mars landing and the bosses' plan was to preserve the Government funding of NASA that would be jeopardised by a call off. Could the Moon landings have been faked for similar reasons? I doubt it why spend billions on a smokescreen? Sure a lot of people got rich but at what cost and at what risk? The 'X-Files' and similar shows always show the brave whistle blower getting eliminated by sinister spooks, if the Moon landings had been faked we'd be chin deep in bodies by now.

The best evidence to dismiss the sceptics must be the remains of the lunar vehicles left on the Moon's surface. High definition photos of these would surely satisfy the most disbelieving anorak. Understandably NASA refuses to commit resources to this largely pointless task but the Japanese are planning a mapping mission that could close this category for good. I'll update if I need to save face!

Most of my research (!) came from the excellent 'The Big Book of Conspiracy Theroies' by Doug Moench. This gave a thorough and detailed analysis of the evidence and almost had me believing. Sadly the next piece argued that they did land but were warned off by aliens and that's why we've never been back! With internet gossip and endless conspiracy theories you can be certain of almost nothing these days but for me at least the Moon remains conquered - for now anyway.

To my mind the easiest explanation is that they did go. It may be naive of me but the logistics of fooling billions of people for decades is unimaginable. In truth if it was all a conspiracy I find that more impressive than the landings themselves. "They can hoax a Moon landing but they still can't make an edible Pot Noodle".

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