Have humans ever been to the Moon?
The overt answer is: Yes, and six times.
Starting from Apollo 11 – that landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin with the Lunar Lander, Eagle – on 20 July, 1969, 12 American men have set foot on the Moon.
Six crewed Moon landings by NASA from July, 1969, with Armstrong and Aldrin in Apollo 11 to December, 1972, with Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt on Apollo 17.
Apollo 13 made a flyby, but did not land as planned, due to a problem with the spacecraft.
Apollo 8 was NASA’s first crewed mission to enter the Moon’s orbit in December, 1968.
Apollo 10 followed in May, 1969, but also did not land before the successful Apollo missions 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 that landed humans on the Moon.
But, why then are there the so-called conspiracy theorists who doubt NASA’s sincerity in Apollo human Moon landings?
One of the most prominent is Bill Kaysing, a former US naval officer, who worked in NASA’s rocket manufacturing company. In 1976, he published a pamphlet entitled, “We never went to the Moon: America’s 30 billion dollar swindle,” pointing out what he perceived to be optical anomalies in the Moon landing pictures.
On September 9, 2002, Barth Sibrel, a television producer who doubts that the Moon landing took place, confronted Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut, outside the Luxe Hotel in Beverly Hills. Shoving a Bible towards Aldrin’s face, he asked him to swear that he actually walked on the Moon, calling him a “coward and liar.”
Aldrin punched his face and pushed him away. Sibrel sued for assault, but the case was dismissed by the court.
Recently, other conspiracy theorists are emboldened by the many failed attempts by NASA in 2022 to launch Artemis 1 with the Orion uncrewed capsule to the Moon.
How come NASA, that is hugely experienced in crewed Lunar missions, is testing with the latest Artemis 1 uncrewed mission and Artemis 11 crewed flyby in 2024 before Artemis 111 crewed Moon landing in 2025?
NASA has successfully, landed 12 white American men on the surface of the Moon in six separate missions and brought all of them safely back to Earth..
The Artemis programme is to land a woman and man of colour on the Moon which should be no problem, at least for NASA, even if the plan is for astronauts to spend many days on the Moon and establish a base there for exploration of Mars.
Furthermore, there is no atmosphere in the Moon, how come the American flags, hoisted in the pictures in the Apollo Moon landings, were waving, the conspiracy theorists ask?
Why are the pictures so well-framed when many of them were taken with chest-fitted cameras from the astronauts?
Shadows appeared in some of the pictures making people wonder what the source of light was?
All the astronauts and the tracks from the Lunar rovers in the last three Apollo missions, the conspiracy theorists argue, were like all the other pictures, taken in an American desert (here on Earth).
Why is NASA still keen on testing the radiation exposure with mannequins in Artemis 1 when humans have been through it so many times before, under protection, without any health problems?
The radiation exposure problem may be real, and that is why Russia, China, India and European Space Agency that have successful uncrewed Moon missions have not sent their citizens to the lunar surface yet?
Only Americans have set foot on the Moon: No other country has even attempted a crewed Lunar mission, with all the fierce competition to colonise space.
The risks are very high and real: To worsen it, NASA used a single-engine Lunar lander without a back-up.
The astronauts could be stranded if they do not make a soft Moon landing, or if their lander malfunctions, and will fail to re-join the orbiting Command Module for a safe return.
Though, the gravity in the Moon is one-sixth that of the Earth, with the very little atmosphere in the Moon, achieving lift will be very difficult for the lander to take-off and re-join its Command Module.
But all the American Moonwalkers returned safely to Earth.
There are so many questions: But could NASA pull-up such a big hoax?
Four American Moonwalkers are still alive today: Aldrin (Apollo 11), David Scott (Apollo 15), Charles Duke (Apollo 16) and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17).
Is it not doubtful that they will all still be lying?
All of them are scientists of high integrity.
At least 400,000 scientists, engineers and technicians were involved in the Apollo programme. Can so many people be shut up in a cover-up? Is it not easier to land a man on the Moon than to pull up a hoax of such magnitude?
NASA photographers have shown that open pictures on the Moon can be taken in daytime, like on Earth, without stars being visible in the background. Also, the Lunar Landers reflect light that could have caused shadows in the pictures.
As for the waving flags, they were hoisted on light aluminium rods with horizontal panels to spread them out. These swung as they were pinned into the Lunar surface by the astronauts.
Pictures from the earlier Apollo missions were taken by chest-fitted cameras which operate without the astronauts using their hands, so photographs by them showing their reflections in a co-astronaut’s visor with no visible camera in their hands can be explained.
The Lunar dust is soft and powdery and that explains the huge boot prints left behind in the pictures as the astronauts walked on the Moon.
The Lunar rovers used in later Apollo missions did not leave a dust plume as they moved because there is no atmosphere in the Moon and the dust settles quickly.
Uncrewed Lunar reconnaissance missions by China, India and Japan have brought photographs of equipment left behind by NASA astronauts near their landing sites.
Russia would have debunked the American Moon landing if it was faked.
Buzz Aldrin in 2024, aged 94 years, made a public appearance and said again that their Moon landing story is real. He even spent time answering some of the questions raised by conspiracy theorists.
The debate – to many people – should have ended, but it continues.
