Houston, we may have a problem...

Nothing too serious on a Friday afternoon, just a quick blog about one of my pet subjects (as friends of mine will be quick to testify)... "Landing on the Moon"!

Did man ever really set foot on the Moon?

There are many many web sites dedicated to both the hoax theorists and the believers. Just as an example, for the hoax crowd check out: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/moon.htm

The conspiracy theorists have long insisted that NASA never went to the Moon. It was all a hoax, they say, a way to win the Space Race by trickery. The fact that Apollo landing sites have not been photographed in detail since the early 1970s encourages their claims.

But maybe the Japanese will finally provide us all with the unbiased truth, one way or the other...

You may have seen in the press, over the past few days, spectacular images from Kaguya, a Japanese satellite, which is exploring the Moon ahead of a planned lunar landing in 2020 (nearly 50 years after humans were allegedly last there!). If you want to see more incredible photos and film go to: http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/11/20071113_kaguya_e.html

This low level reconnaissance with HDTV will surely reveal whether it was all a fake, the ultimate camera trick, or the most amazing piece of human endeavor.

The Moon has no atmosphere, so the “Rover” moon buggy and other relics, such as discarded lander platforms, should all still be there – even the rover’s tracks may still be detectable.

Of course, the Japanese have kind of stolen NASA’s thunder with their mission…

In 2008 NASA’s own Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is planned to carry a powerful modern camera into low orbit over the Moon's surface. Its primary mission is not to photograph old Apollo landing sites, but it is expected to photograph them, many times.

Before the Japanese came along it was thought NASA’s LRO would be providing the first recognizable images of Apollo relics since 1972… but now they won’t be able to pull the wool over our eye’s - if they ever did?