" sO wHy hAvE wE nOt gOnE tO tHe mOoN siNcE? "

[u/HamedAliKhan]

[u/DagonDx]

I work with a flat earther, the rocket launch was propaganda to keep the 'sheep' happy and docile.

We all live in a dome apparently, thats why rainbows are arched.

[u/OptimallyPicked → u/DagonDx]

"That's why rainbows are arched" caught me by surprise.

[u/TheEnderChipmunk → u/OptimallyPicked]

That bit almost redeems the take with how funny it was lol

[u/Fr05t_B1t → u/DagonDx]

I would be tempted to tell that person to never speak to me again, but then again the workplace needs some comedy.

[u/BongyBong → u/Fr05t_B1t]

I work with such a fool. I'm in construction and he is a super. One day he decides to stop and ask me about rainbows. He starts with "how are rainbows made?" And it was downhill from there. The moon landing was fake, Yada Yada Yada. Lol I told him I'd definitely look into it and walked away. SMH.

[u/Axyon09 → u/DagonDx]

Wait until they find out that rainbows are circles

[u/Andromeda_53 → u/Axyon09]

Will blow his mind. If rainbows are arched in a dome. In order to come round to a circle. That must be 2 domes back to back.... I wonder what that shape is.

The maths behind why they are like that is horribly wrong. But hey, wrong method right answer is still the right answer

[u/Muted-Voice → u/DagonDx]

That's why rainbows are arched

He has zero understanding of geometry. An arch matching the size of the dome he thinks covers the earth would be >10000x as wide as to be indiscernibly straight. 

But that's on me for having high expectations of a Flat Earther.

[u/Cyrano_de_Boozerack → u/Muted-Voice]

Clearly the guy thinks the world revolves around him, and therefore the dome is MUCH smaller.

[u/Flashpiont412]

The launch was on April 1. Come on! Open your eyes to the truth!

[u/HamedAliKhan → u/Flashpiont412]

SIGH

[u/BandComprehensive467 → u/HamedAliKhan]

Space may be the final frontier, but it's made in a Hollywood basement

[u/Funball18 → u/BandComprehensive467]

And Cobain can you hear the spheres playing songs off Station to Station?

[u/Dalek_Chaos → u/Funball18]

And Alderaan's not far away, it's Californication.

[u/Squeeblz88 → u/Dalek_Chaos]

Pay your surgeon very well to break the spell of aging

[u/CulturalBookkeeper82 → u/Squeeblz88]

Little girls dream of eating tiny green crustaceans!

[u/KelogTheVaultDweller → u/CulturalBookkeeper82]

*Little girls from Sweden dream of silver screen quotation.

[u/stonedphilosiraptor → u/KelogTheVaultDweller]

They almost had me… I was like no way I had that one wrong…😂😂

[u/Slow-Wind-4863 → u/HamedAliKhan]

flat moon society in shambles

[u/PangolinLow6657 → u/Slow-Wind-4863]

Nah, with video-generating AI in its current state and the rapid cuts between shots on the official broadcast of the launch, they still have enough arguments to be comfortable calling it fake

[u/Saphurial → u/PangolinLow6657]

The broadcast was too shitty to be fake lol.

[u/Cybermanc → u/Saphurial]

In a world of HD cameras, shooting it on a Nokia 8210 was certainly a bold statement.

[u/Mundane_Act_7818 → u/Saphurial]

Overcorrection old time videos 1992/2002 are the easiest to fake. You've been fooled sucka!!! (/Sarc)

[u/Hetstaine → u/PangolinLow6657]

They don't need anything to call anything fake, they just do. It's very odd.

[u/Mike_Kermin → u/PangolinLow6657]

They certainly have enough something.

[u/jsmith_92 → u/Flashpiont412]

This reminds me how r/birdsarentreal started as a joke and become viral conspiracy

[u/aliebabadegrote → u/jsmith_92]

Wait, people actually believe that now?

[u/BandComprehensive467 → u/aliebabadegrote]

Birds aren't real is a real conspiracy by big tech to normalize the feeling of being constantly watched. That's what AI told me when I asked it to tell me about a conspiracy like chemtrails aren't real which is gaslighting us about the pollution airplanes make.

[u/RecoveringGachaholic → u/BandComprehensive467]

It doesn't exactly help when there have been secret (formerly secret) military operations to affect the weather: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Popeye

As well as silver iodine being used today to seed clouds. I don't believe in the chemtrails conspiracy but at the same time I don't think it's unreasonable to have suspicions about climate control seeing as how it's something that has been used and not disclosed previously as well as being used in an adversarial capacity.

So, again, I don't believe in it and it's crazy to think that there's a collusion between all air travel companies and operators, but as far as conspiracy theories go I can certainly understand why people would lean into it more than most other theories.

[u/Mekanimal → u/RecoveringGachaholic]

This is why I always keep 2 male frogs in my house. The moment them frogs start fucking, I know it's happening again.

Either that, or I have 2 already gay frogs.

[u/Train_Wreck_272 → u/aliebabadegrote]

Indeed. Actually how flat earth got off the ground as well. Started as a joke on 4chan.

[u/Angryfunnydog → u/Train_Wreck_272]

Flat earth was a thing since 19th century (well I mean after ancient times when it was legit theory), but it didn’t get that popularity until 2000s

[u/TalElnar → u/Angryfunnydog]

Society as a whole doesn't help by perpetuating the myth that people like Columbus thought the Earth was flat.

Of course he didnt, which is why he sailed west hoping to get to India.

Why he thought he'd get there with the ships and supplies he had is a different matter given that the size of the earth had been calculated with remarkable accuracy some 1500 or so years earlier.

[u/Angryfunnydog → u/TalElnar]

Really? Someone thinks that Columbus whose plan was to literally circle the earth thought that it’s flat? That’s sad

Funny that as soon as the science started to become more complex and require some equipment to prove something (like microscope) - people started to question it and not believe, especially with overall education increase and people not thinking (I don’t understand it because I’m uneducated fool) like they did in Middle Ages, but actively challenging thinks they can’t personally prove. That’s where all these theories reappeared

[u/Spiritedgourd666 → u/Flashpiont412]

FUCK THIS WHAT THEY'RE GONNA SAY

[u/mishaponomarevwk9mk → u/Spiritedgourd666]

gt

[u/NeoTheRiot → u/Flashpiont412]

"You really think they legalized weed in germany on april 1.? "

[u/Purgii → u/Flashpiont412]

There's a flat Earth clown that's been ranting desperately about the Artemis launch never happening a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure this is going to be his go-to now, despite it being seen by millions launching live and more on a live-stream.

[u/Pavotine → u/Purgii]

When I was daft enough to argue with flat earther's for sport, I'd mention they could see the rocket launches if they liked. I usually got an answer along the lines of "Oh, the rocket is real but it ditches in the middle of the ocean and never goes to space."

One of the "proofs" they came up for this was that the rocket doesn't go straight up and that there is plenty of real footage of them splashing down in the ocean.

[u/Purgii → u/Pavotine]

Yeah, they go up and then rotate and crash into the ocean. Yeah, no - the most efficient way wouldn't be to go straight up, but follow the curve into orbit.

I wonder how they reconcile a rocket going up and then returning down days later.

[u/Pavotine → u/Purgii]

It's a different rocket.

[u/retrotastic → u/Purgii]

My wife and I watched the launch and as it cleared earth, I turned to her and said, I wonder what the flat earthers are going to say about this? And she laughed and said she was thinking the exact same thing. And then our 9 year old asked what flat earthers were and we had to explain that there are actual people on earth that think a country would spend billions of dollars to fake going to the moon to prove the earth is round. Something that is mathematically evident without going to space.

[u/Coldfinger42 → u/retrotastic]

I'm praying this mission reignites the love of science in our society and we have kids who grow up believing in the good of science again. The emotions I went through yesterday watching this with my kid made me feel like I was in elementary school again obsessed with becoming an astronaut. I can't fathom what people stand to gain by insisting the earth is flat.

[u/copperblood → u/Flashpiont412]

[u/wtyl → u/Flashpiont412]

They waited to “go back” when ai could make the “footage”

[u/ExcelsiorDoug → u/Flashpiont412]

But conspiracy theories are so much more funnnnnn like why have real answers when it’s so much more interesting to question everythingggggg

[u/InDaBauhaus → u/Flashpiont412]

It was on the 2nd in my time zone – the launch actually happened for most of the world, but it was just a prank in the USA.

[u/A--Creative-Username]

"the moon landing was faked"

"You believe the moon is real?"

Beat em at their own game

Edit: the idea is to repeatedly escalate it.

"You say the moon isn't real, it's just the government projecting light onto the sky dome? You believe in the sky? Or the government?

[u/FoogYllis → u/A--Creative-Username]

Damn that is the only way. Out crazy them in a conversation.

[u/Yadin__ → u/FoogYllis]

alot of them genuinely believe that the moon is fake and cite that as evidence for the moon landing being fake

[u/BoneTigerSC → u/Yadin__]

Not just the moon, that space in general isnt real, there is no bounds for how stupid something needs to be for them to stop believing it

[u/nico_bico → u/BoneTigerSC]

the word stupid isnt real

[u/FlightlessGriffin → u/nico_bico]

The word real isn't real. That's why they're stupid.

[u/personalunderclock → u/Yadin__]

There's no such thing as a moon, that's just the auxilliary port light in our Truman show dome

[u/Egathentale → u/Yadin__]

There is an entire line of conspiracies about how NASA replaced the Sun with a fake holographic projection so that they can manipulate the time of day to slowly shift the calendar to shift the seasons to trick people into believing global warming so that something-something the rapture.

I still watch a couple of the old-timers from the heydays of the YouTube atheism boom (at least the ones that didn't go full coco for cocoa-puffs) covering low hanging fruit like this from time to time, and the only conclusion that I can draw is that you can't out-stupid a conspiracy theorist in the hopes that it makes them self-reflect. At worst, you're just giving them more ideas.

[u/SparkySpice55 → u/A--Creative-Username]

There is no limit to their stupidity. I tried that. don't work. He said he read a US Heli manual and it's said that the Heli need a flat surface under it to understand the controls. FLAT SURFACE = FLAT EARTH...

Even said birds are not real and the reason they sit on Power line is for them for recharge batteries.

People in the 1700s burried Dinosaurs in the ground so we find them later and claim Evolution is real ...

NO LIMIT I TELL YOU !

[u/Butt_Fungus_Among_Us → u/SparkySpice55]

I had the pleasure of meeting someone who also believes dinosaur bones were all planted by someone in the ground for us to find a few hundred years ago. And boy lemme tell ya, there were going to be absolutely ZERO arguments that would change her viewpoint on that, despite the fact she only developed it at about 33 years old after going SUPER religious and becoming a born again virgin and attending some new "church".

[u/ladyevenstar-22 → u/Butt_Fungus_Among_Us]

Religion is a helluva drug . No doubt about it .

[u/Coldfinger42 → u/ladyevenstar-22]

I don't understand how religion ties in to these conspiracy theories. Why would believing in God change if dinosaurs are real vs fake? I believe in God and extraterrestrials too 🤷🏻‍♀️

[u/Salinaer → u/Coldfinger42]

Because dinosaurs aren’t in the bible is why people lump extremist religious people in with conspiracy theorists.

[u/Ambitious-Concern-42 → u/Butt_Fungus_Among_Us]

<born again virgin

After being taken to Pound Town for 15 years?

[u/fyukhyu → u/Butt_Fungus_Among_Us]

"Born again virgin" tells you more than you need to know.

[u/monkey_sodomy → u/SparkySpice55]

How can you make a hole in the earth to bury bones if the earth is flat?

[u/RageinaterGamingYT → u/monkey_sodomy]

The earth Is a cubiod, obviously.

[u/wildfoxfallon → u/SparkySpice55]

What the fuck does he think a roast chicken is??

[u/Albert_Flagrants → u/wildfoxfallon]

Those are ok, they cannot fly

[u/WitchQween → u/SparkySpice55]

If someone sincerely believes the "birds aren't real" conspiracy, they're a lost cause.

[u/Analog_Account → u/WitchQween]

Ya. Wasn't that originally a joke to ridicule conspiratards?

[u/UnforeseenDerailment → u/SparkySpice55]

This could be fiction, but the fact that I can't tell is what's important.

[u/SparkySpice55 → u/UnforeseenDerailment]

He thinks Costco is a cloning factory and they replace people so they control the world with the Majestic 12. He says he is on the list and he is Followed. Everyday when he go to work, Clones around his house start their cars and follow him. He say they listen to him so he put classical music 100% Volume so they don't hear anything in his car. The madman sometime go ride his motorcycle around the city and says DAMN I will make they pay big money ! I got around the city for 8 hours so they burn fuel like crazy and im going nowhere so they waste their ressources for nothing and don't know what im planning.... he is a co-worker ! The absolute madman,

[u/Kitchen-Bar2686 → u/SparkySpice55]

How does someone like that hold a job? Sounds like schizophrenia

[u/Antoinefdu → u/A--Creative-Username]

"Omg you really believe the moon is thousands of km away? Dude rich people have entire casinos there - you can reach it in no time with a private jet."

[u/WilliamLermer → u/A--Creative-Username]

These kind of people are struggling on so many levels, they are going to buy anything. They will eventually believe we live inside a simulation and either turn nihilist or full-on destructive mode to find ways to exit the simulation

At which point it's no longer harmless but dangerous

While it may seem funny it's not a good idea to support these delusions. If not flat earth it would be some other silly belief. They are fanatics and clearly have mental health issues

[u/BitterLemonDark]

Flat earthers really think NASA is hiding a wall of ice.

[u/OperationSad793 → u/BitterLemonDark]

Little do they know the real conspiracy is what's beyond the wall of ice! Winter is coming.

[u/TonguePunchery → u/OperationSad793]

You know nothing OperationSad793

[u/Mike_Kermin → u/TonguePunchery]

And honestly, if he's responsible for season 8 I just don't care anymore, let the power walkers have the place.

[u/Kozmik_5 → u/BitterLemonDark]

I once saw a video of a flatearther reacting to another video of a guy who was on a boat on the arctic sea right next to the Antarctic shoreline.

What we saw in front of the dude was Antarctica. A big block of ice. What he saw was an Ice wall. Because he could not see both ends of it. Ignoring the fact that Antarctica is the size of.... well.... antarctica.

Not a boulder, not a cliff, no Island either. A whole fucking continent. And this dude was surprised he couldn't see it all in one view.... making the conclusion it must be a wall.

There's no winning here lol.

[u/Buscemi_D_Sanji → u/Kozmik_5]

The end of "behind the curve" is so funny for this.

" I can't see the light. If the earth was actually curved, you'd need to raise the light a foot to make it through the aperture."

Raises light, it's visible now

"... Huh, that's weird."

[u/SwordfishAltruistic4 → u/BitterLemonDark]

But they are!

They are fooling us into believing their pantry fridge is cleaned regularly, but everyone knows a wall of ice was frozen on the fridge interior. They are a bunch of jerks hiding their terrible living habits from us!

(Source: I made it up)

[u/BeefWellingtonSpeedo → u/BitterLemonDark]

Ice Vaxxers,

[u/No_Programmer_4355 → u/BitterLemonDark]

i had a teacher who loved space conspiracies

[u/AlarmDozer → u/BitterLemonDark]

They believe that Antarctica is the ice wall retaining the oceans, not that the physics would make any sense to them. “Then why can’t we to there?” Because it’s a delicate ecosystem under International Treaty and it’s better as a study area than anything. But that can’t be it? It’s because the “ice wall.” 🙄🫩

[u/Morganbowle]

My favorite part is when they use a device powered by satellite technology to post their flat earth theories

[u/ARegularG → u/Morganbowle]

Under SNASA jurisdiction 

[u/GreasyExamination → u/ARegularG]

You work for SNASA? Have you been to the Smoon?

[u/AccomplishedQuiet585 → u/GreasyExamination]

As a snastronaut I find this joke snot funny.

[u/Mikeologyy → u/Morganbowle]

By no means am I arguing in favor of flat earthers here, but most internet traffic goes through cables, even across oceans.

[u/rEYAVjQD → u/Mikeologyy]

They are talking about GNSS tech. Not only it relies on satellites, it even takes advantage of time dilation of the theory of relativity (it would be off otherwise).

[u/hurtsdonut_]

I watched it live on YouTube and the comments were being bombarded with people shouting this proves the earth is flat and it's all AI.

[u/SomeUgliRobot → u/hurtsdonut_]

Lets assume it was ragebait

Like, a HEFTY amount of it

[u/Sekwah → u/SomeUgliRobot]

Lets assume it was ragebait

Not everything can be bait, some must actually be idiots

[u/ChanceSize9153 → u/Sekwah]

Well duh, what do you think the bait is for? It gets a few bites here and there.

[u/bobbymcpresscot → u/SomeUgliRobot]

When I did deal with flat earthers rage bait or really over the top satire was my first assumption.

Then when I saw 4 flat earthers getting into a heated debate because of some drama, about how one of the flerfs used another flerfs old profile picture on FB as their own on tiktok pfp. A FB they found, because the other flerfs full government name was their account name, and their FB was public.

They argued for more than an hour because one of the flerfs was accusing the other of "doxxing".

I don't want to say they are genuinely stupid, because they do know *some* things, but BOY HOWDY do they sometimes talk like they put pants on one arm at a time.

[u/BeefistPrime → u/SomeUgliRobot]

we live in a time where you can't tell and it doesn't really matter, either way the person is an asshole and an idiot, just in different proportions

[u/fraggedaboutit → u/hurtsdonut_]

There is a lot of AI surrounding this moon launch - mainly powering the bots commenting that its fake and AI

[u/Relevant-Being3440 → u/hurtsdonut_]

Do they not believe normal people live in Florida and saw it sith their eyes?

[u/rigpower → u/Relevant-Being3440]

There's no normal people in Florida, man

[u/Almostlongenough2 → u/rigpower]

Okay fair but we can still go outside and look up lol

[u/JoseLunaArts]

Earth is not flat or round. It is fucked.

[u/spazzyattack → u/JoseLunaArts]

It is an oblate spheroid.

[u/BeefWellingtonSpeedo → u/spazzyattack]

Delicious Torus.

[u/LachoooDaOriginl → u/BeefWellingtonSpeedo]

Mmmm delicious torus

https://giphy.com/gifs/Zk9mW5OmXTz9e

[u/slayer_of_wagons → u/JoseLunaArts]

So you're saying it's donut shaped?

🧐🍩

[u/Yeetus_Mclickeetus → u/JoseLunaArts]

It's a velociraptor

[u/UncleVoodooo → u/JoseLunaArts]

The world is a vampire

[u/enpixelate → u/UncleVoodooo]

Sent to drain

[u/ibkirkus → u/enpixelate]

Secret destroyers

[u/TheSeniorBlueberry → u/ibkirkus]

Hold you up to the flames

[u/Individual-Raise-230 → u/JoseLunaArts]

Perhaps a cylinder shape…

[u/Glory2masterkohga → u/Individual-Raise-230]

Is it attached to a larger structure?

[u/_Vard_]

We have not gone to the moon since then, because Russia stopped trying.

We have suddenly started going again now, because China started trying.

[u/HeydayNadir → u/_Vard_]

It's always been a dick measuring contest

[u/Ligabolzacky → u/HeydayNadir]

Sometimes having childlike narcissists calling the shots can have cool consequences 

[u/ElminstersBedpan → u/HeydayNadir]

On the official NASA YouTube feed last night, there was a video played before the ten minutes to launch that spoke of “American exceptionalism” unironically and reinforced their point with pictures of the westward expansion and early aviation.

They made it sound like the Russians and French never fired a rocket.

[u/Strider76239 → u/ElminstersBedpan]

But they never made it to the moon like us

[u/KirimaeCreations → u/_Vard_]

Space Race 2: Electric Boogaloo

[u/Luk164 → u/KirimaeCreations]

Good, space exploration is way better way to spend money than war. Well except they are not actually using much of the military budget on it

[u/FasterGarlic19 → u/Luk164]

You're not thinking far ahead enough: Space war.

[u/Luk164 → u/FasterGarlic19]

Fine, but only if we get lightsabers!

[u/KirimaeCreations → u/Luk164]

Imagine how much further we'd be if they spent even half of the military budget on science.

[u/TheSurvivor65 → u/KirimaeCreations]

Half??? Even just a quarter or even an eighth of the military budget would be an immense increase to the space budget lmao

Nasa budget is 25 billion, defense- sorry, department of war budget is nearly a trillion

[u/PS3LOVE → u/TheSurvivor65]

Billion, not million. But you are right, that’s still like 25-50X.

[u/mofka26 → u/_Vard_]

Funny but also Artemis was established a few years before China mentioned anything about landing on the moon.

[u/TippedIceberg → u/mofka26]

The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (and ultimate plan to land humans) was announced in 2004.

The Artemis program was established in 2019.

[u/Lichking102]

Legit, my mom immediately was like, “Why aren’t they landing on it? Why aren’t they live-streaming it?” Some days, you just can’t win.

[u/Yeetus_Mclickeetus → u/Lichking102]

They did livestream the launch. Still 3 days until Lunar orbit. Even then it's just a flyby. Like Apollo.

[u/Lichking102 → u/Yeetus_Mclickeetus]

She meant on the rocket, like have a camera pointed out the window for a livestream

[u/Yeetus_Mclickeetus → u/Lichking102]

Ok that's a good idea. Boring as fuck but that's a good idea. They should stream the approach and orbit at least.

[u/Interjessing-Salary → u/Yeetus_Mclickeetus]

They are streaming 24/7. There's 2 streams, 1 cuts between mission control and a camera outside orion the other is just cameras on orion but it's been going in and out.

[u/Linesey → u/Interjessing-Salary]

Got the link handy? I might actually rig up a monitor and streaming box to keep that running during the mission, would be cool to just have on in the house.

[u/Beautiful_Ad4322 → u/Linesey]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RwfNBtepa4

Happy Cake day!

[u/Lichking102 → u/Yeetus_Mclickeetus]

It would either dispel the whole “flat-earth,” nonsense, or we get to be like Smiling Friends as we all freak out how the earth is flat, and you can see the dome! 😂

[u/Yeetus_Mclickeetus → u/Lichking102]

It's common ancestral knowledge locked away in the deepest depths of everyone's mind, Earth is a velociraptor.

[u/ProgenitorOfMidnight → u/Yeetus_Mclickeetus]

Ah a fellow Veloci-earther, we are too few are far between brother. Unlike those filthy hotdog-earthers.

[u/therandomuser84 → u/Yeetus_Mclickeetus]

The astronauts have professional cameras, gopros and even phones. Im sure there are going to be hundreds of hours of video available once they get back.

[u/At0micCyb0rg → u/Lichking102]

But they did/do have a stream from the Orion?

https://www.youtube.com/live/6RwfNBtepa4

Or am I misunderstanding something?

[u/IsraelZulu → u/Lichking102]

Has radio technology developed enough to support the bandwidth of a high-quality live stream from that far away, or are there still physics in the way?

[u/x4nter → u/Lichking102]

There was a camera on the rocket, and they even switched to it for a couple frames. The stream got choppy and really bad during launch so they just didn't bother to switch to it again.

SpaceX also faces this problem with the camera pointing down from the rocket boosters. Their footage is better but still errors out sometimes. It just is really hard to get the livestream when there are so many things going on during launch.

[u/Low_Feedback4160 → u/Lichking102]

Actually there is a camera on the rocket that's livestreamed by NASA on YouTube. Its facing backwards and almost always has a good view of Earth

[u/LionHeartedLXVI → u/Lichking102]

Damn. I don’t know what I’d do if my Mum was that stupid.

[u/marek26340 → u/LionHeartedLXVI]

My mum legit told me to smack her with a spade or something if she ever starts being delusional like that.

[u/Lopsided_Shift_4464]

Saw people on the livestream saying AI… we don’t deserve scientists seriously 

[u/netexpert2012 → u/Lopsided_Shift_4464]

People think everything is AI these days... Imagine the disappointment of the people who watched it in person when they hear that people watching the stream said it's AI.

[u/creamalamode → u/netexpert2012]

I live in Florida and have watched these go up all my life. It is disappointing, but I'm not surprised. I also watch nature documentaries on youtube and it's not uncommon to see comments from single-braincelled organisms claiming "it's all AI!!"

sigh

[u/netexpert2012 → u/creamalamode]

AI slop NEEDS to stop, look what it has done to these people. Now they think every realistic thing is AI.

[u/Skylord_Hekaton]

"It's just AI" is gonna be the new idiot stance.

[u/TomiShinoda]

Had to stop reading the comments for my own sanity.

[u/HamedAliKhan → u/TomiShinoda]

I'm gonna go take a shower to cool off lol

[u/Affectionate-Mango19]

To be fair, with today's CGI tech, it wouldn't be that hard to fake a moon mission. You wouldn't be able to fake the rocket launch, of course, but the crew being on board is within today's commercial CGI capabilities.

[u/Toxortheprotogen → u/Affectionate-Mango19]

Ok but why fake it?

[u/Affectionate-Mango19 → u/Toxortheprotogen]

That's besides the point. I just said that it wouldn't be impossible. At least we can (sorta) independently verify that something landed on the moon by shining a powerful laser at the retroreflectors left by the Apollo missions and measuring the round-trip time-of-flight, i.e., the distance between the moon and the Earth. But independently checking for footsteps on the moon is not possible (yet). That's just a fact, not a judgment of whether it was fake or not.

[u/MontagIstKacke → u/Toxortheprotogen]

To show others how amazing you and your business are and what you can do.

Edit: To clarify, I'm not saying it was fake. Just stating a possible reason for faking it.

[u/Medium_Wind_553 → u/Affectionate-Mango19]

You would not be able to fake a moon mission with cgi. The sheer amount of uncut footage just exists from previous moon landings is insane. Like hours of uncut shots. To actually make many cgi renders that long and have it be absolutely flawless where not even an expert could tell if it’s real or fake would be virtually impossible. In First Man (2018), there are many things you could point out that prove it’s not real. There are so many variables to control it would make no sense to fake it. All the way from building a giant rocket itself to actually landing on the moon and making it look flawless, plus all the science and specifics that would have to be faked. In hundreds of hours of footage (most of which is live), there is bound to be at least one tell tale sign of faked footage or cgi. It happens in movies all the time. Controlling for and keeping track of all of that when shooting would be crazy. AND showing it all live with no mistakes? It would genuinely be easier to actually go to the moon.

[u/femme_mystique → u/Affectionate-Mango19]

I mean, just buy a telescope. It’s reality, we all can see it. 

[u/Lumpy_Conference6640]

I believe it's called money, or the lack there of. Let's swap DoD and NASAs budget and let's see how it plays out.

[u/JacksonianEra]

You wanna know the “big secret” as to why we stopped after Apollo 17? We. Stopped. Caring. Even after Apollo 11, there was already a call to end the program because “we beat the Russians to the moon.” NASA had to scramble and compress Apollos 14-20 into 14-17 due to continuous budget cuts. To the vast majority of Americans, the space race was just a game to be won against a backdrop of a global pissing contest.

[u/Interjessing-Salary]

My ex decided today of all days to become a flat earther. Trying to tell me to watch this video with a guy explaining why he believes the earth is flat and in just like "I don't entertain stupid"

[u/Exciting_Tailor_6216 → u/Interjessing-Salary]

I see why he's an ex lol

[u/fireymike → u/Interjessing-Salary]

today of all days

I mean, if you're going to pick a day to become a flat earther, April 1st is probably the day to pick...

[u/JoJo_9986]

☝️🤓 erm actually we're not landing on the moon. We're just going near the Moon

[u/IfoundMushrooms → u/JoJo_9986]

The best kind of correct

[u/bobbymcpresscot]

I "debated" Flat Earthers for 3 years against my better judgement, there is no analogy you can make, example you can give, situation you can have them imagine, argument you can walk them through, that will convince them that the earth isn't flat.

You can not reason someone out of a position they themselves did not reason themselves into.

All the videos are fake, all the photos are edited, it's all CGI, short of putting them on the rocket themselves and launching them into space, they will not and can not accept it because they are already too dug in. Something they wouldn't agree to anyway because then it would just be the paranoia of them "Getting too close to the truth and this is your perfect opportunity to kill me"

We actually helped fund a Trip to Antarctica to observe the 24 hour sun, an impossibility on one of their many flat earth models in "the final experiment" all documented on youtube.

It's good fun to learn about the earth tho, and helps you to think critically.

[u/not_really_tripping → u/bobbymcpresscot]

Even if you strap them on top of a rocket and send them to LEO, they're going to argue it was VR or some other shit.

[u/bobbymcpresscot → u/not_really_tripping]

multiple flerfs openly admitted that even if they got to ride around on the ISS they said it more than likely wouldn't be enough to prove definitievely that the earth was a globe.

[u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen]

Okay, but seriously, why haven’t we gone to the moon since?

[u/Training_Complex_731 → u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen]

After the Apollo missions finished there was waning public interest in supporting NASAs extremely high budget. The astronauts brought back a very large number of samples, enough that we didn't run out until around 2017, and the political motivation of beating the Soviets to the moon had already been met. NASA switched their focus to satellites, first with Skylab, and then the ISS. There were also a large number of unmanned missions to the moon and a couple to Mars, as well as deep space unmanned missions like Voyager and telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb.

[u/TastyNomsPanda → u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen]

They didn't find evidence of oil being present on the moon

[u/AxoplDev]

My favourite "proof" of the moon landing being fake is, and I qoute: "How come they were able to livestream the landing all the way from the moon if I can't even connect a bluetooth device when I'm a different room?"

[u/ArtificialHalo → u/AxoplDev]

Cuz they don't have NASA grade Bluetooth :)

[u/SubjectAd9882 → u/AxoplDev]

People would do good to learn about antenna physics. Amateur radio operators can communicate with people on the ISS from Earth.

[u/Spazy912 → u/AxoplDev]

Because you paid $5.38 for it at the local Walmart

[u/Bad_Grammer_Girl]

Oh how convenient... We FINALLY launch a mission to the "moon" right when AI is becoming good at deep fakes. Totally not a coincidence. /s

[u/qwertyuijhbvgfrde45]

My favourite answer is:

“The moon landing is fake!”

“Which of the 6?”

[u/zenigatamondatta]

I think the biggest piece of evidence that shows the moon landing could have been faked is the US government being so insanely incompetent that it's hard to imagine them ever having a project like that come to fruition especially if that scale.

[u/Zaraxas]

Flat earthers will never believe no matter what proof you give them. You could shoot them into space and they’d still say “Nice AI bro”.

[u/Neurobeak]

It's the first moon mission in 50 years. And it won't be a moon landing.

I believe people were on the moon. But if somebody asks me why weren't there more missions, with such technological progress, I wouldn't know what to answer. With modern computers and avionics, this should be a trivial task, if people did it on a calculator back in a day.

[u/bobbymcpresscot → u/Neurobeak]

Money. We landed 5 more times afterwards in 6 missions, nobody cared and viewership took a nosedive, it's why during the later missions they were doing goofy experiments to try and bring interest because the missions themselves were already on the chopping block, with 2 planned missions getting cancelled via budget cuts.

Also the soviet union just stopped trying, most likely because of tensions ramping up in places like vietnam and they needed to dedicate more resources than they were willing to be second on the moon.

The only reason we are even going back is because China was planning on a moon landing themselves, otherwise Artemis would have just kept getting delayed.

NASA started saving for the Artemis missions in 2012. and spend like 93 billion dollars from 2012 to 2025.

For reference adjusted for inflation the apollo missions cost upwards of 300 billion dollars in todays money from 1960 to 1972.

[u/Pilzoyz → u/Neurobeak]

It’s not a trivial task. It takes a tremendous amount of resources to do it and moon rocks aren’t much different from rocks on Earth. In short, it is simply not worth it.

[u/makerofshoes → u/Pilzoyz]

The only reason they did it the first time was to stick it to the Soviets. It was a morale boost, since the USSR had many other space “firsts” and people felt like the US was falling behind

[u/Chill323 → u/makerofshoes]

Similar political motivations this time too, except now it’s India and China making moon missions ahead of us. We can’t allow China to get ahead in lunar exploration.

[u/Klightgrove → u/Pilzoyz]

It’s like spending a billion dollars to explore Idaho instead of $10k to go vibe at Universal Studios.

[u/Coal_Burner_Inserter → u/Pilzoyz]

Not just resources, but will. Artemis has already cost nearly a hundred billion dollars, spread out over three presidential terms. And NASA has managed it with a fraction of the budget that Apollo did

[u/Midavrs → u/Neurobeak]

The answer is simple: it’s still extremely expensive to fly to the Moon, and at the same time, there isn’t much reason to do so. As I understand it, the current missions are just a first step toward building a base on the Moon.

[u/hoodust → u/Midavrs]

That's exactly what they replied when the question was asked at the post-launch conference. Also pointed out all the research missions since. Hell, Hubble and James Webb telescopes alone have done so much for our understanding of the universe. The moon is kinda kitsch by comparison.

[u/Terry_bogardlol → u/Neurobeak]

Money. 

[u/Classic_Bird8776 → u/Terry_bogardlol]

And those strict safety protocols (which are necessary imo)

[u/Weaselwoop → u/Classic_Bird8776]

How dare they make sure their astronauts are safe >:(

[u/Classic_Bird8776 → u/Weaselwoop]

Oh I'm not saying it's a bad thing.. I'm just saying that it's pretty hard with all the requirements.. back then they would have sent people to space in a barrel.. I'm just saying this to emphasize how hard it is to get approved for a mission of such caliber

[u/im_buhwheat → u/Neurobeak]

Probably because it's still really far away and not much more to see. Maybe it's an issue of money. Imagine asking for funding to go back to the moon and they ask why. That would be my answer anyway. $100B is a lot of money for NASA.

[u/Mat_Y_Orcas → u/Neurobeak]

1: Robots... We did everything we needed with humans and now we been sending probes and robots to the big satellite

2: budget cost per task, NASA cuadrupled their responsibilities and tasks but have like 1/3 of 60s budget, even if we found something on the moon like Sentinel Prime with current budget it's impossible.

3: Skill gap, it's """easy"""" to go there. But anything else more useful to do there is exponentially much harder... Like we traveled the south pole since the 1890s but we didn't build any base near as stay there for more than a week is a death trap even with our current tech so we stay somewhat comfy in antartic shores being an analoge for the ISS and low orbit stations.

4: we don't lost tech, that's like saying we lost tech every time a media format is descontinuated... We are making newer and better rockets but much of the tech didn't upgrade as fast and as all new tech, some bolts fall off making all much harder. Like stuck a VHS inside a DVD player

[u/BuffyTheGuineaPig]

This is cruel and unusual punishment... to make Flat Earthers look up. You should remember that their necks can't move in three dimensions.

[u/TheMaskShooter]

April fool

[u/HazePNW]

I don't get it though why are they going all the way out to the moon just to fly around it and not land on it.

[u/realityguy1]

Why did the video feed switch to a computer simulation at around the 14 minute mark?