dan83590

I just read this:

Nasa has delayed the launch of an unmanned spacecraft to the moon to scout for potential landing sites for astronauts.

The moon craft is the first step in Nasa's programme to send astronauts back to the moon and beyond.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was supposed to blast off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in December aboard an Atlas V rocket, but the launch was pushed back after Nasa agreed to swap with the US Air Force, which will fly a prototype space drone.

Nasa spokesman Grey Hautaluoma said the new launch window, which opens on February 27 next year, relieves schedule pressure and provides more launch opportunities.

"When we looked at the trade-offs... it seemed like a wise thing to do," he said.

The swap means Nasa will miss the Bush administration's stated goal of exploring the moon with a robotic spacecraft by 2008. Nasa plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2020.

According to Nasa, the rocket's maker, United Launch Alliance, approached the space agency about switching launch dates with the US Air Force, which was prepared to fly its X-37B reusable unmanned satellite.

"It was tested and proven ready to go," said US Air Force spokesman Mark Brown. "We were able to jump ahead."

Nasa's 491 million dollar (£263 million) lunar craft is designed to circle the moon's poles for at least a year, using its instruments to map the craggy surface and search for safe landing sites to send a manned crew.

Piggybacking on the mission is a 79 million dollar impactor probe managed by Nasa's Ames Research Centre that will deliberately crash into one of the poles to look for signs of water ice.

I could have sworn that the USA have already been there. So surely they'd know of landing sites and technology has moved on a great deal since the 60's!!!

GC8

Yes. The conspiracy theories a feeble and theyve all been debunked.

Dspeed

We have never walked on the moon.

GC8

Is that the royal 'we'?

The Dogs B******s

Speak for yourself,i have

dan83590

I must say that the article did leave me a little bemused. As a general rule a try not to believe all the silly conspiracy theories. The article was taken from my MSN homepage so you'd think it should be fairly genuine?

Interesting....

RA Dunk

still dont believe we have ever been there TBH, when did we supposedly walk on the moon 40 odd years ago or something, you would have thought they would have been back since then for some tests or experiments or something during those 40 odd years would you

NeilT

If we didnt go to the moon how come there are several prism light reflectors there that scientists can beam lasers into and measure the reflection time to calculate the exact distance from earth to moon (or so I understand)

In my view Moon landing conspiracy is more cheque book journalism.

Neil

RA Dunk

we have never been to mars but we have landed stuff on it havent we?

NeilT

Also consider the likes of the Jodrell Bank telescope - surely if we never went to the moon they would have seen it for what it was - or were they part of the conspiracy?

I'd love for someone in the US to officially announce that we never went to the moon in the 60s, what a great story that would make, but until then the evidence for the conspiracy seems pretty weak and i'm sure many people have paid their rent and more peddling their books on the subject.

Neil

Matt578

Definatly never did land on the moon

GC8

Nonsense. You cant offer one fact that supports that foolish assertion, can you?

RA Dunk

i love these type of debates, keep em comming peeps

dan83590

For what my two pennies are worth. I think the 60's lunar mission was a load of crap. They could do it 50 years ago but not now? Well not even now, 'by 2020' Come the **** on!

Neil Armstrong

Matt578

For the people on board the shuttle to survive the walls on the ship would have to be 6 foot thick of lead to block out the gamma radiation! but some how they survived with just 5 layers of what was basically tin foil...

They landed there on a ship that had less computing power of a mobile phone these days....

they havet been back there since the original landings even though they was a 100% suscess... surley it could not be that hard to go back....

The photos from the moon landings would only have one light source (The sun) but in the picture there are shadows going in different directions... like multiple lights?

The pictures taken on the moon are in exacterally the same place... as in identical even down to the little rocks on the suraface... even though the two locations was apperantly 8 miles apart....

In the photos there are no crators where the rockets would of fired into the ground to land the ships...

The flag blows in the wind even though there is no wind on the moon...

i think its clearly all rubbish. it would be impossible to survive the trip there let along make it back. Its a complete scam and was completly staged just so the USA would win the race to land on the moon. There is not a chance in hell they made it. Just my 2p though of course...

Dont get me started on conspiracy theories lol

Matt578

Hey everyone is entitled to there opinion I think it was a hoax, there is a lot of NASA statements explanine that all of the things i said are rubbish. Its upto everyone to make up there own mind. I hope we did land there but tbh i just cant of seen it happening.

phil_wrx

iTrader: (2)

remember the film capricorn one top flick

GC8

Matt: with a little research you will see that all of the conspiracy supporting 'evidence' is amateurish and massively flawed. Gamma radiation; no stars; flag blowing in the wind; moon dust not moving under the rocket: all debunked. NASAs mistake was to consider the ignorant fledgling theories beneath them and so not comment; and in so doing they allowed them to gather pace.

Matt578

Like i said everyone is entitled to there opinion. I think i will have to have a good read on the facts for the "conspiracy" being wrong. You never know, might change my mind. The only thing that will always have me towards saying it never happened is the fact we havent been back there when there is so much vital work that scientist want to do there. Sorry for my bad spelling

Scoobyspanners

Yes they did go to the Moon, at the time the US were in competition with the Commies and they were monitoring what the US was up to and had spy's in place in the US.
IF the Yanks had faked the landings then the Russians would have quite happily produced the evidence for such a big cover up and shown the world how dodgy capitalism was with glee!
Both the US and CCCP launched their post War space projects after capturing German technology and personal, originally these projects were for military purposes and not manned space programmes.
Wernher von Braun was a National Socialist German Workers Party ( **** ) party member from 1932 and in the Waffen-SS from 1940 until the end of the war.He was the driving force to get Man on the Moon after JFK made His famous speak about putting a Man on the Moon.
The yanks have left experiments on the moon one of which is still working today, a prism reflector that is used to measure the distance between the Moon and Earth via a Lazar and is still in used to this day.

So the CCCP knew what the USA was up to and would have blown the whistle on them telling the World about the this at the time ( ****'s and Capitalism hand in hand would have been a great coup for TASS ) and equipment left on the Moon by the Astronauts that is in use today kind of settles the argument for me!

+Doc+

Where did you dig this fabled fossil from?

dan83590

I don't understand. There was enough knowledge in the 60's but now not until 2020!! Wake up guys, ALL nations were corrupt, not just the nations on our TV's. It's called p-r-o-p-a-g-a-n-d-a.

RA Dunk

agreed, i still refuse to believe they put a man on the moon 40 odd years ago and havent returned for training , experiments, testing etc etc since

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Ahh the whole "did they or didn't they" moon landing thread, we haven't had one of these for days.

dan83590

Sorry, I didn't mean to bore you Cookie..

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Not boring at all, I think it's quite ammusing seeing the same old arguments thrashed out, with neither side being able to prove anything.

Matt578

My imagenation it sound like, will read the for it side later

Jonnys3

Mr Spoon went to the moon on a regular basis and that was in a rocket made from a baked beans can too!

GC8

Of course they are. You need to base your opinion on well researched fact though, rather than on the feeble conspiracy theories that 'no-moonwakers' repeatedly trot out. There isnt one credible piece of evidence to suggest that it was a fraud: everything appears sort-of credible, until you challenge the faux-science and hearsay with actual science.

Moon conspiracy theories really are poor compared to JFK conspiracies. At least they had credible evidence to back them up for years: although much of the 'evidence' was mistaken (the governors seat position for example, making it look unlikely that the 'magic' bullet could have taken the official course). In the end it turned out that the police outrider with the open radio channel wasnt anywhere near where he believed, which scotched the audio evidence: 'no-moonwalkers' can only dream of such credibility...

Scoobyspanners

Back in the 1960's there was a political imperative to beat the CCCP to the Moon, but now there is not a Space Race as such.
NASA need to go carefully as Human losses in space research are no longer an acceptable risk. In the last century lots of people took risks that are unacceptable in today's climate. And not just in Space, car speed records are littered with Deaths and Aeronautics as well.
If the people who put their lives on the line were as cautious as we are today we would still be running around in Horse and carts and string and canvas Bi-planes!!
NASA will not send anyone back until they are as sure as possible that it will be a success. The original crew who went to the Moon were given 50/50 odds which they knew at the time. It was rumoured that they had cyanide capsules the boards incase they got stranded............