Final conclusions...
The baseless barroom chatter surrounding the Apollo program is not just a series of technical errors; it smears the good name of thousands of people who, starting from nothing, achieved an unprecedented technological miracle. That is the real heart of the matter! We live in a society where people increasingly prefer to believe fairy tales just because they were "heard on TV" or read on some "social network or blog of dubious reliability", accepting them as irrefutable truths without any checking. And yet, today there is no shortage of ways to dig deeper. We could argue for hours, but we would never find a single truly inexplicable detail in the legacy of the lunar missions. The aim of my work and that of my collaborators is precisely to provide the tools to think for yourself and reach your own conclusion based on facts. In this regard, I would like to invite you to reflect on the legal definition of the word "circumstantial evidence": «A certain fact from which the judge can infer proof of the existence of another fact relevant to establishing the truth». To qualify as such, circumstantial evidence must be a certain fact. It cannot be a suspicion or, even worse, an assumption; in a democratic country, you cannot ask for your neighbor to be arrested just because "it cannot be proven that he is not a thief".
So let us take final stock of how many "certain facts" conspiracy theorists actually have:
- The photos: none of the photos from the Apollo missions shows any anomaly. The deniers' alleged evidence always consists of distortions of reality or of manipulations made ad hoc to support the credibility of their claims.
- The films: they show exactly what physics predicts in a vacuum and in low gravity (including the flag, which swings because of inertia, not wind).
- The Moon rocks: analyzed by laboratories all over the world (including Soviet ones), they confirm an extraterrestrial origin that is impossible to fake on such a scale.
- The radiation: no verified data confirm that the Van Allen belts are lethal for brief transits; astrophysicists worldwide categorically refute the conspiracy claims and, on the contrary, confirm what NASA says.
- The lunar environment: the deniers' theses on temperatures and pressures are technically false; if they were correct, even today's lunar surface activity by China, India and other nations or independent organizations would be impossible.
- The telescopes: because of the limits of optical resolution, it is physically impossible to photograph the remains of the Apollo missions left on the Moon with Earth-based telescopes. On the other hand, they can be framed and captured by robotic probes orbiting close to the Moon and equipped with sufficiently powerful optics, exactly as Chinese and Indian probes have recently done, completely independently.
- Space dynamics: the deniers' objections (such as the missing crater under the LM) ignore the laws of fluid dynamics in a vacuum, revealing themselves for what they are: ravings that ignore even the most basic laws of physics.
- The conspiracy: no Moon-hoax believer explains how it could have been possible to involve tens of thousands of experts, foreign nations and even the rival Soviet Union (which monitored every signal) in a silence lasting more than fifty years.
Faced with this scenario, a judge would not merely acquit NASA for "lack of evidence", but would deliver a verdict of full acquittal "because the alleged fact never happened"! Indeed, given the sheer amount of falsehoods, the judge would classify the conspiracy theses as slanderous and biased.
Dear readers, I hope this long analysis has not been just a technical report for you, but food for thought. As a citizen, an educated person and an enthusiast of astronautics and astronomy who deeply believes in the value of knowledge, I refuse to go along with currents of thought based on sensationalism or mere imitation. I believe it is a clear moral duty, before forming or sharing an opinion, to examine the truthfulness of every claim rigorously. It is precisely thanks to study and respect for the scientific method that I chose to devote my time to defending one of the most extraordinary chapters of human progress: an epic achievement that does not belong to any single nation, but is a priceless treasure for all of humanity!
The conspiracy theorists' books may have seduced 25% of public opinion (the part that sadly ignores the basics of science), but they have outraged 100% of the international scientific community.
Thank you for your attention!
Matteo Negri
Author and webmaster
