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People
regularly ask me; "did we really go to the Moon - or was it all an
elaborate hoax?". Well, putting aside my initial shock that
anyone could believe for one moment that an operation of this magnitude
could possibly be covered up, with the numbers of people involved and
the many missions which were launched, I got to wondering how we could
prove it to the doubters. The
obvious way would be to show people the equipment that was left on the
lunar surface, but there isn't a telescope on Earth large enough, or
with sufficient resolution to show even the landing stages. I've
been asked whether Hubble can see them, and the answer is still
no. So until NASA launched Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter we had no
images, but now the high resolution camera on board the LRO spacecraft
has sent back a series of images showing a number of Apollo landing
sites, and they are set out below, with the various pieces of equipment
marked with arrows. Even
at this close range it is barely possible to make out the objects, but
in particular if you look at Apollo 12 (below right) you can see not
only the descent stage and the remains of Surveyor 3 close by, but also
the trail of footprints leading to and from the "ALSEP"
experiments package (Apollo Lunar Science Experiment Package). Of
course, there is nothing to prevent the sceptics saying these images are
Photoshop fakes - but some people simply don't want to believe we ever
went there, and I'm not about to try to convince them.
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Apollo
11 |
Apollo
12 |
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Apollo
14 |
Apollo
15 |
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Apollo
16 |
Apollo
17 |
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