Science

NASA To Take Photos Of Lunar Landing Sites, End Conspiracy Theories

Suck it up, conspiracy theorists, because soon your cuckoo stories about the US simulating the Moon landings will be over forever. NASA has confirmed to Gizmodo that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will take photos of all the Apollo landing sites:

Jesus Diaz: Would the LRO return images of the moon landings when it flies over them?
Grey Hautaluoma (NASA Headquarters, Office of Public Affairs): Yes, it will. We don’t have a timeline yet for viewing the Apollo sites, but it will be in the near future.

There you have it. Soon we will have photos showing the remains of the Apollo Lunar Modules, also known as LEM (Lunar Excursion Module.) Built by Grumman Aircraft Engineering, the Lunar Module was 20.9-foot tall, with a 14 feet diameter and a landing gear span of 29.75 feet.

However, the Lunar Reconnoissance Orbiter will only be able to take photos of what is known as the Descent Stage, the bottom part of the LEM that housed the main propulsion system. This part was left on the Moon’s surface, while the Ascent Stage launched after each mission to rendezvous with the Command Module orbiting around the Moon.

Other remains left on the Moon include the Lunar Roving Vehicles, used in Apollo J-class missions: Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17. Since they are 3-meter long, the LRO will be able to distinguish them as well.

Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)

  • Rick

    When LRO take that pictures, the conspiracy theorists will claim now that NASA had forty years to prepare or fake that landing sites…wait and we’ll see!!

    • lol

      LOL, 40 years to come up with a picture? LOL RIGHT……………

      Japan has already sent a satellite (2008) to probe the surface of the moon. NO LANDING SITES were found or seen. LOL

    • phil

      Well the big day has been a real disappointment. the photos of the landing sites just look like some pathetic photoshop newbiw student did them. in fact there are similar objects all over the moon apparently from what are claimed to be lander descent bases. What a surprise.

  • matt

    hehe, I think they underestemate the power of conspiracy theorists, if you think a trivial little thing like photo evidence is gonna convince them…

  • And what stops them from just fabricating these photos? I’m not saying it was fake but come on a kid with Photoshop could create this “evidence”.

  • 0kensai0

    They’re conspiracy theorists. You can pack them into a rocket and send them to the landing site and they question whether they’re actually on the moon….paranoia is hard to disprove because no evidence is good enuff

    • Doing another moon landing in the last 30 years would have helped, don’t find it strange they some how managed to land a man on the money using technology most of have in our watches, yet now days it’s always in the next 20 years or so.

      • David Pirtle

        We never returned to the moon because Nasa’s mission was rewritten in the seventies to focus on the Shuttle, not because we couldn’t go. We went to the moon nine times, and we landed upon the surface six of those times. There was little reason to keep going just because we could. Today Nasa is returning to the moon because their mission has been changed again. They are going to stay.

  • yea, when I read that all I could think about was some one tampering with the photos, there’s nothing stopping them

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    Forty years later, it turns out that the original director, Theo Kamecke, has the only pristine copy of the original 35mm film. Never before released to the public for home viewing, the film has been restored to a spectacular high-definition wide screen masterpiece with an all new soundtrack!

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  • Daniel

    what the hell are photos gonna prove? even if we get to the moon, they still could’ve been purposely put there…? 40 years later, they are saying “ok guys, we will take photos now to prove it” – 40 years later.

    come on nasa, wtf?

  • John

    NASA carried out six manned moon landings between 1969 and 1972. Then 40 years of struggling to get the shuttle off the ground.

    NASA will end up renting space on Russia’s launch vehicles because the shuttles will be decommissioned eventually.

    On a side note, Stanley Kubrick’s “A Space Oddysey: 2001″ was a great film wasn’t it? It was made a year prior the first manned moon landing.

    So, excuse me if I am a little skeptical.

  • Jerry Bronner

    I don’t know if we really did go to the moon or not, but I don’t think it’s “cuckoo” to be suspicious of the claim.

    It does stand out as an anomaly that we went 40 years but haven’t been able to put a man outside low earth orbit since. The highest we (or anyone else) has put a man since Apollo is a mere 850 miles up.

    I won’t go so far as to say they faked it, but if that turns out to be the case it won’t shock me.

  • kalidas

    Will the “new” photos include any UFOs which may appear or will they be removed?

  • Jerry Bronner

    PS, one other comment: why has it taken 37 years to photograph the landing sites? Even the skeptics agree that we have sent many unmanned probes to the moon. How is it that we can send men to the moon in 1969 and unmanned probes before and after but can’t take a photograph of the lunar surface until 2009? That doesn’t make any sense to me.

  • rustysoul

    Nothing can be believed anymore. Nothing.

  • phishybongwaters

    Well, seeing as there’s clear evidence that NASA doctored some moon photos, this won’t clear up anything. They need to explain why they “touched up” photos, why they apparently faked some video of them in transit to the moon.

    Besides, no ones questioning the technology being able to send equipment there, so for the hard core non believers this proves nothing.

    I for one will not believe it just because the government says so, seeing as they had to most to win and lose by going/not going.

    And why won’t any of the astronauts swear on the bible they went?

    I’m hoping for some great high quality images either way, but I hope you guys aren’t expecting it to resolve anything……

    I think they went, just not as many times as claimed, but that’s just me, tho I have one huge lingering question..

    The apollo missions were thrown together fairly quickly, with technology about as advanced as any digital wrist watch. They made it, safely, many many times.

    But now, with todays technology, they require at least 15 years to do it safely?

    WTF is that about.

    Those of us with doubts might just be crazy, but anyone believing solely on the word of the government, the same government that time and time again has lied to it’s people on various subjects, that’s just insane.

    Question your reality folks, don’t just take it for granted.

  • george

    After 2 years,in the 60’s,NASa made space ships to travel and land on the moon.After 40 years,NASA can’t get into space without the Russians help.
    FYI: Whole moon landing was fake–to get an upperhand on the cold war.
    Fact: no living creature can survive on the moon–instantley killed–out in space yes but not on te moon surface. Your Government lies,wakeup fools :^/

  • Lobsterman

    Check out
    Dark Mission dot net
    “Dark Mission – The Secret History of NASA” by Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara

    In interviews Hogland talks about how during the Apollo launches to the moon that in the press gallery fliers were left for the press saying that the landing on the moon was a hoax. They did not know who left the flyers but there was one on each member of the press’ chair when they came into the room.

    This was done to create a false conspiracy’s to lead people down the wrong rabbit hole.

    It was dis-info to create a conspiracy to keep people preoccupied with a false conspiracy – maybe to keep the “nutters” from looking into who’s pockets the billions given to NASA went?

  • Bob Smith

    There are no conspiracies – Watergate never happened.

  • Don

    It amazes me how so many people will believe just about anything that is put in front of them. And even more interesting is how the obvious truth is scoffed at.

  • Will Davis

    Use Google Images and type in Apollo 11. Find the photo posted in this article and save to your photos. Open it in your photo and enlarge. Look at the blue area behind the lights. You will see corners on the dome room. Now look on the ground, there is a cable run. The camera had a battery pack, so those cables had another purpose.

  • joe gauza

    It’s funny when people lable other people who question official stories, and call them conspiracy nuts, when by and large, the official story has never been proven true either. If people who question stuff like the moon landing and 911 are onto something, then wouldn’t it be all those of “sane and sound mind” the ones believe crazy stories? I agree there is a conspiracy theory for everything but you’re crazy to believe everything that people who want to control you tell you.

  • rory snyder

    here is footage of the Apollo 11 crew faking part of
    their alleged mission to the Moon back
    in 1969… Enjoy!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xUGRngAhBI

  • lion_of_Babylon

    The only way to disprove conspiracy theories is to show scientic evidence.

  • Big M

    What a load of stinking crap. They announced the same thing in March of 2005, and they never released any photos. Why? Figure it out.

    For anybody who still believes this moon landing garbage, there’s only one question they need to be asked. How could these astro-NOTS have stood on the surface of the moon and transmitted live video over a distance of 240,000 miles, with no telecommunications satellite within 200,000 miles of them?

    If they even begin to try to explain it, you know that you’re dealing with a f***ing moron.

    And by the way, why does it matter to dimwits like this guy whether people believe this? The government lies every time that it opens its hole, so for a person to believe ANYTHING they say pretty much stamps them as an idiot.

    Suck on that, Jesus.

    • Big m fAn

      Thanks big m for the heartiest laugh in weeks. I almost cried. Suck on that jesus was down right hilarious. Even more so after i saw the authors name. Keep up the good work.

      As to all u naysayers – fuck. Im so sick of hearing the inept, drive by, know it all, absolutist, cia misinfo inspired, commentary from u msm sourced and cited ass clowns, it bears witness to the outbreak of kaczynskis as a viable alternative to the mundane jawing of a 60hz driven, fat ass automaton generation, who is even worse than their liberty trashing, apathetic, pharma drugged and duped fathers who claim they r the ‘best gen ever’. So ya, i second big m – suck it jesus. Suck it long and suck it hard.

  • CaptinCrunch

    I have never seen this many comments on a gizmodo article before!!

    I for one want to (and do) believe man landed on the moon. At the end of the day you can probably “prove” or “disprove” anything you like if you spend long enough on it. I’ve heard all the augments and i don’t see it as a problem to be skeptical, but it’s just as easy to create counter augments. Maybe i’m a romantic, but i like to think man went to the moon in a tin with less tech than a calculator for the same reason Captin Cook sailed into uncharted oceans, or Shackleton walked to the antarctic. “If Man realises technology is within reach, he achieves it. Like it’s damn near instinctive.” replace “Technology” with “goal” and it makes a bit more sense. (10 points for knowing the quote).

    I guess it just comes down to believing what you want to believe, but it seems like a ridiculously big secret to keep. =)

  • Angus MacPherson

    People watched the lunar landings with telescopes from their backyards all over the world. Pretty much ends the “did we go or not” argument.

    However that argument is being used to overshadow something more important..what we actually found on the Moon and the true nature of the Moon itself.

    Official NASA photos show clouds in the lunar atmosphere, Atmospheric Hazing, What appear to be vehicle tracks going up and down crater walls, vegetation, water reservoirs, construction, mining, etc etc. These can be seen in the book “We found Alien Bases on the Moon” by Fred and Glenn Steckling and the photos in the book come with the NASA Serial Numbers so you can get the originals for yourself.

    Be careful where those who have something to hide direct your attention as typically it’s not towards what they are hiding…

    • Gul Able

      Show us YOUR photos of the “landings” taken from your binoculars! Puleeze!

    • Sarah

      That would be a bit hard as if you know the facts they landed on the side of the moon no visible to earth, so that proof went right out the window, and another poser said it correctly the Japanese sent a satellite up their recently no landing site or equipment found, no I suppose the Japanese are liars and blind, hmmm.

      • DavrosfromSkaro

        “That would be a bit hard as if you know the facts they landed on the side of the moon no visible to earth”

        Apollo 11 landed on the Sea of Tranquility which is on the face of the moon pointed towards Earth. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_tranquility

        Although Angus is incorrect when he speaks of people using telescopes to observe the moon landings – no telescope currently in existance can observe the moon in enough detail to do this – independent observers were monitoring radio communications and tracking the Apollo 11 mission. This is how we know Russia launched Luna-15 in an attempt to beat the Americans to the moon. Jodrell Bank in the UK, whilst monitoring the Apollo Mission also picked up the Luna 15 transmissions. Jodrell Bank has details on the event here: http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/2009/luna15-apollo11/

        The Japanese Satellite (SELENE) did indeed orbit above the Apollo Landing sites. However, the orbit was at appx 100 km, twice the distance above the lunar surface than the LRO. If the LRO photos (here http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html) aren’t enough to convince sceptics that the landing did happen, I don’t think the Selene ones would either.

        The Selene mission did show some evidence for Apollo 15’s exhaust plume and confirmed the Astronaut’s description of the Hadley Rille.

        Remember, of course, that neither the LRO nor Selene’s primary mission is to find evidence of previous moon landings.

  • nskahakls

    laughable shit.

    moon landing is exactly like pearl harbour, 911, WMDs, “bailout” stimulus, etc… all rubbish

    japan probe just went about the moon taking pictures of ALL THE PURPORTED sites and returned clear proof of no landing. there’s not a trace of some apollo bullshit at any of the NASA/nazi landing sites.

    you’re a filthy liar promulgating more nazi USA lies and laughable rubbish.

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