by Mark Dykstra

Created on: October 14, 2007   Last Updated: November 05, 2007

Beginning with the Apollo 11 lunar landing on July 20, 1969, a total of 12 astronauts explored the Moon's surface on foot and traveling in the lunar rover vehicle. On Apollo missions 11, 12, (Apollo 13 was aborted, but returned to Earth safely), 14, 15, 16 and 17, the commanders and lunar module pilots conducted a series of experiments, photographed their lunar surroundings and returned to Earth 382 kilograms (843 pounds) of lunar surface materials consisting of more than 2,000 separate samples.

Apart from the fact that millions of people saw the Apollo series on television and heard them on radio in real time, perhaps the lunar material is as irrefutable proof as any that the Moon missions were not "faked." The rocks and particles, still under study by scientists worldwide, were clearly formed in an atmosphere lacking oxygen and water and they show major chemical differences from any previously known Earth rocks. This material could not have been collected, or even manufactured on Earth, and clearly comes from an entirely different world.

Even if NASA had set out to "fake" the Apollo or any of its other programs, there is no possibility it could have done so. Since its inception in 1958, NASA has operated an "open" program, i.e.: all activities have been covered in depth by the news media. For example, during Apollo 11, over 3,500 media representatives from all over the world were at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, for the liftoff. Most of these press, television and radio reporters shifted immediately after launch to Johnson Space Center, Texas, to follow the operational phases through splashdown in the Pacific Ocean and recovery by an aircraft carrier with the U.S. President aboard. Before undertaking the Apollo program, NASA had to justify it to the President and Congress before funds were appropriated. The Apollo series cost approximately $25 billion.

There has been speculation that the LM never left a crater when it touched down thus supporting the argument that the LM never did land. However, there are two very good reasons to believe that the Lunar Landings did take place and i will list them in the following:

(1) Although the descent engine on the LM is powerful, most of its operation takes place thousands of feet above the Moon during the early stages of the landing. Because the lunar atmosphere is a near-perfect vacuum, no air currents are set up that would scour the surface at a distance as might occur during a landing on Earth. Movies of the landing

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