Conspiracy theories are like religion – they are a matter of faith, not reason (you may argue about religion: in this case, please get in touch with that mild-mannered and highly esteemed gentleman of Konisberg named Immanuel Kant. I’m nowhere bright enough to discuss the subject anyway). This means that you can’t generally prove conspiracies don’t exist, only failing to prove they do. But as any lawyer can tell you, absence of proof is not proof of absence. If you believe JFK has been killed by, say, aliens, and that the Illuminati control the world, there’s nobody that can prove you wrong.
The Moon has been an object of co
nspiracy theories too, including the one claiming we have never been there. The whole Apollo programme and the landing itself were a NASA hoax, and the images the world received were actually a Hollywood movie directed by Stanley Kubrick (on a script created by Arthur C. Clarke: at least, the producers got the team right!). If you think this is a thing of the past, you’re mistaken. As late as 2001, Fox TV network aired Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?, which discussed the claim.
The documentary, almost one hour long, featured a series of interviews, just to conclude that whole thing was staged in the Nevada desert – in that place rife with yet more conspiracy theories called Area 51. Simply put, NASA did not have the technical capability of going to the Moon at that time, but it faked the landing for political pressures due to the Cold War.
In time, we have obtained additional proofs – if they were even needed – that this specific conspiracy theory got all wrong. In case you are curious, the exceptional resolution of the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) managed to capture some really sharp images of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites – footprints included.
And some days ago, Nvidia, the Californian chipmaker, used the latest in computer graphics technology – the GeForce GTX 980, well known to the gamers – to recreate Neil Armstrong’s famous photograph of Buzz Aldrin walking on the Moon and check it out for differences. Guess what? They concluded we have been there, after all.
This of course won’t stop people believing the contrary. As Stephan Lewandowsky, a professor at the school of psychology at the University of Western Australia that investigates the conspiracy theorist’s mind, affirms, there is evidence that conspiracy theories are capable of influencing people even when they explicitly attempt to discount them. I guess we can keep debating Moon landing for a few more years, whilst getting ready for hiking on Mars.