On this day 41 years ago, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon, an engineering feat that has yet to be topped. A giant leap for mankind at the time, indeed, but I'm really disappointed we haven't gone back.
However, it really upsets me that a large portion of this planet truly believes that mankind has never been to the moon. As an aerospace engineer, frankly, this really pisses me off. I know the science behind it. Is it difficult? Of course it is. But we have definitely done it, in 1969 with the computing power of a modern microwave, if that.
I'd like to take this time to try and debunk the conspiracy theory, explain why space exploration is a good thing, and link the conspiracy theories to an interesting conclusion I made.
First, on debunking the conspiracy theory, I have three main arguments. First, the Russians' hubris is ridiculous, i.e., they strapped TWELVE engines to the main stage of a rocket fueled by inferior kerosene as compared to liquid hydrogen, and wonder why they couldn't get all that weight off the ground. This hubris SURELY led the Russians to be tracking the mission the ENTIRE time, and if there was any indication whatsoever that the mission was faked, the Russians would have come forward with that data.
Next, Armstrong and Aldrin placed a laser reflector on the moon in the Apollo 11 mission. Observatories all over the world (particularly American observatories in the mountains in California) frequently fire lasers at this reflector to measure the distance between the moon and the earth (speed of light x time taken for signal to return/2 gives this distance). Just go to one of those observatories, I'm sure they'd love to demonstrate for you.
Finally, with all the work that would have gone into faking the mission and making it look real, it would have been easier to send three men to the moon. And if you STILL don't believe it, well, then I triple-dog-dare you to walk up into Armstrong's or Aldrin's face (probably Aldrin, he's feisty, Armstrong is too calm to care) and tell them they didn't walk on the moon.
We haven't been back since the Apollo missions because the general public feels its a waste of money, so the government obliges and spends less money on the space program. Many great technologies were developed for space use, and then were given back to us on the surface. One such example: the ball point pen. There already were ball-point pens, but they were greatly improved after research for space missions so astronauts could write in zero-g. Ingenious, yes, but possibly unnecessary (the Russians used a pencil). Tons of fuel-saving measures on engines wind up coming back to automobiles. Rocket engines see temperatures of greater than 5000 K and all kinds of innovative technologies are implemented to keep them cool, and that technology comes back to the surface as well. The possibilities are limitless.
Alas, the government has all but quit funding NASA. Obama's new NASA budget was a huge slap in the face. However, the private space sector is booming, and I suspect we'll be back on the moon no later than 2030, and I doubt it will be government funded.
Finally, a lot of the reasons I get from people for not believing we went to the moon spark an interesting comparison in religion. People don't think we've been to the moon because there isn't enough proof or that there are tons of scenarios in which the moon landings could have been staged. I'll preface this by saying that I am NOT an atheist, but many atheists don't believe in God for exactly the same reasons. And the percentage of people on this planet who don't believe we've been to the moon is far greater than the percentage of people on this planet who are atheist (at least it seems that way to me. I don't have any exact stats). The comparison is staggering, and frankly, a little shocking.
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