Artemis: Killing two conspiracy theories with one spacecraft

All the evidence should have hushed those pushing discredited conspiracies, but the fact that it hasn't shows these phony claims are just to attract attention.

The Artemis II crew has been making history, journeying further from the Earth than any previous human spaceflight, an inspiring saga for everyone around the world, encouraging a new generation of engineers and scientists.

But that hasn’t stopped some nattering naysayers from interjecting all kinds of negativity into this inspiring story. Some on the basis of cost, because they can’t see the benefits that surround them every day. And some with talk of two thoroughly discredited conspiracies, that the Earth is somehow ‘flat‘ and that mankind never ‘went to the Moon.’

Except that with the preponderance of evidence against these theories, the likelihood is that those who engage in this activity are merely doing so for clicks and attention.

Just look at the evidence against them and how they exploit conspiracies to fully understand the probabilities of their true motivations.

Let’s begin with all the ways they have been disproven. Beginning with the basic physics of Gravity, first worked out by Sir Isaac Newton several centuries ago. The reality of the space programs with thousands of scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and skilled craftsmen who worked on these programs and never exposed them as ‘fake.’ To the fact that we’ve just gone back to the Moon – showing that the Van Allen Belts can be traversed- while transmitting data back to a spherically shaped Earth.

Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation applies everywhere.

Flat Earthers preach that everyone should do their own science and observation. O.K., we can all observe (with the proper safety equipment in the case of the Sun) that all other planetary bodies are spherically shaped. We can’t see how they would deny that the Sun exists, and every night the Moon comes up and causes the tides. We can also use telescopes to observe other spherical planetary bodies. The same physical laws apply on our home planet, and mathematics says that it has to be spherical. We can also observe that the shadows of the Earth on the Moon are curved. No NASA conspiracies necessary. Conspiracy theorists like to just ‘ask questions,’ so why doesn’t the ‘Ice wall’ that holds in the world’s oceans ever melt?

Then of course, there is the mankind never ‘went to the Moon’ myth – that was disproven again yesterday, but we digress. This one was started in 1976 as a question about the cost of the program. Ever since, each time the same questions are raised, and they are quashed by the same answers. So, like the Flat Earth belief, it’s hard to fathom that its purveyors are doing this except to garner attention.

Too many people not to have talked.

This concept should be easy to understand. Briefly stated, the larger the conspiracy, with a higher number of ‘conspirators,’ it’s simply a matter of probabilities that some will talk over time. This was postulated in a scientific paper 10 years ago, and while some quibble over the maths, the concept is still sound. Large conspiracies cannot stay secret.

Naturally, the rejoinder to this concept is something along the lines that just a few ‘in the know’ would somehow control everyone else in the organization. Completely ignoring the facts of a scientific organization such as NASA, with thousands of independently minded and highly educated specialists that wouldn’t fall for that kind of control or compartmentalization. It also ignores the fact of publications such as NASA Tech Briefs and Aviation Week & Space Technology (Link to their 100-year archive). Thus, it’s mind-boggling that something could have been ‘faked’ in that environment where information is freely disseminated.

Apollo 11’s Communication and Telemetry Systems proved the Moon landings.

It’s irrelevant that tapes of this have been lost; the important point is that we were in an intense Cold War competition with what was another global superpower in the world – the Soviet Union – in a race to the Moon. During that time, we were also picking up the telemetry data from their missile tests and space program. These declassified documents offer a good introduction to how this was done.

It is easily presumed that our global superpower rivals would have had a similar program; they would have easily picked up any ‘faked‘ data, and they would have broadcast that to the world.

We are in a similar situation today with Red China; if we were ‘faking‘ the Artemis II flight, the ‘Reds’ would have called us on it.

Evidence of the landings exists on the Moon at the landing sites.

It’s almost becoming too easy to bust these conspiracies. In this case, there are images along with retro reflectors on the Moon that prove the landings. Scientists bounce lasers off the retroreflectors to make various measurements, proving we went there.

Finally, the penultimate evisceration of this ridiculous conspiracy: We’ve gone back.

As we said, Artemis II killed two conspiracy theories with one spacecraft. The images – that if fake would be called out by the Reds and the rest of the world – prove our home planet is spherically shaped. Going back destroys one of the common retorts of the Moon Landing Deniers.

All of this should show that the conspiracy theorists don’t have a leg to stand on, but it’s likely they all know this already. All the ‘questions‘ have already been answered, countless times. The evidence is in front of everyone, so it’s very hard to fathom that they believe a word of it. In fact, the New York Times just about gave up the game for them a few years ago in a piece entitled: They Kinda Want to Believe Apollo 11 Was Maybe a Hoax.

The point isn’t whether the conspiracy is true or false, opinion or fact, or even plausible. The point is that it’s stimulating.

If the classic conspiracy theorist was said to be motivated by distrust of authority and a feeling of social powerlessness, the ambivalent one can be animated by an even simpler impulse: boredom.

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Now that conspiracy theories have been converted into pure entertainment, with no pretense of conviction, they have been infused with plausible deniability, for hucksters and for platforms, too.

It’s pure entertainment without conviction, all for clicks and attention.

Why is it important to call them out?

Several reasons – one, they’re attacking the work of thousands of dedicated engineers, researchers, scientists, technicians, and diminishes their dedication and hard work. They’re also attacking those we have lost, as well as the taxpayers who have supported the space program. All for clicks and attention.

Two – all of this sow’s unnecessary mistrust – a healthy amount of mistrust in the government is fine, but this exacerbates a problem that is only getting worse.

Conspiracy theorists should be ashamed of what they are doing, and it’s time to stop giving them the benefit of the doubt, knowing that these conspiracies are ridiculous. They’re likely doing this just for attention – It’s time to stop giving them that as well.

Originally published on the American Thinker.

Image: NASA image // stated conditions of use

NASA it’s own website permission.