why was the usa the only one to go to the moon?

[alexsanchez]

Prove they lie.  You have yet to prove a single thing.  Plenty of handwaving though.

Handwaving?  I'm just talking way over your head.  (What have you ever proven?)  Tell ya what... why don't you get me $50 million and I'll prove whether they landed on the moon or not.  $50 million is the cost of sending a rocket to the moon.  I just need to fly over a landing site and beam back a camera image.  If there's no descent stage, then they didn't go.

Of course, if you find one, we know you'll claim it's fake.

Until the time comes that somebody does that, all we can prove is that it was infinitely easier to fake it than go to the moon, and that's a fact.  I happen to know that they didn't go to the moon because they would have needed to do an IMU alignment on the moon, which they couldn't do, because they had no survey marker on the moon.  And, anybody who wants me to prove I'm an engineer, and that I worked on the Delta rocket, and the ISS, you need to put up some money and bet me.  A Director of Engineering at Boeing is a former co-worker.  Another co-worker is a Chief Engineer at General Dynamics.  I used to party with those guys.  I've used them as work references.  My college roommate is a director of engineering at Panasonic.

Where'd you go to college?

Drexel University, BSEE, 1980

[JayUtah]

Drexel University, BSEE, 1980

Any course work in orbital mechanics?

[alexsanchez]

Another thing:

A Director of Engineering at Boeing is a former co-worker.

Cool. You can ask him about Boeing's work on constructing the Lunar Orbiter probes, the first stage of the Saturn V and the Lunar Roving Vehicle.

Another co-worker is a Chief Engineer at General Dynamics.

Another excellent one. You can talk to him about the General Dynamics manned lunar spacecraft proposals that were part of the contract bidding at the start of Apollo. You can ask about the work they did designing the Little Joe II solid rocket used for testing the Apollo launch abort and escape systems. Talk to him about the company's Atlas rockets that were used to launch the first manned orbital missions. You could even ask if he was at the company in the early 90s when Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders was chairman and CEO.

I am assuming that you think these people will support your assertion that Apollo was faked because the engineering was not up to the task, in which case we would certainly be interested to hear from them. After all, one of them had a plan for the entire manned lunar epxloration program drawn up and submitted, so they must have had some idea of the engineering challenges involved. Alternatively, you made the classic layman mistake of thinking NASA did it all themselves rather than contracting the work out, and in fact had no idea that Boeing and General Dynamics played such a key role in the entire Apollo program (or manned spaceflight in general). Given some of your earlier assertions I'm inclined to believe this is more likely....

"I am assuming that you think these people will support your assertion that Apollo was faked because the engineering was not up to the task..."

Why would you make an assumption like that?  I NEVER said engineering was not up to the task.

I used to do some work in the S-IVb building at McDonnell Douglas, HBCA.

[sts60]

"I am assuming that you think these people will support your assertion that Apollo was faked because the engineering was not up to the task..."

Why would you make an assumption like that?  I NEVER said engineering was not up to the task.

Now I'm really confused.  See, you said you were an engineer, and that you worked guidance, and that Apollo didn't have an appropriate way to guide the LM.  The correctness of this claim aside, how do you reconcile the alleged inability of the GNC engineers to come up with a usable solution with your new claim that you "NEVER said engineering was not up to the task"?

And do your high-powered space business friends agree with your claim that Apollo was a fake?

Also, thanks for the information on your undergraduate degree.  I'd still love to hear the rest of your story, as outlined in reply #66.   You've added Huntington Beach to your resume, and that you did "some work" for MacDac there... what did you do?

[Jason Thompson]

Why would you make an assumption like that?  I NEVER said engineering was not up to the task.

How does your argument about the inability to perform lunar orbit rendezvous not qualify as a statement that the engineering was not up to the task, since the ability to lift off and rendezvous is definitely an engineering problem?

And do your friends from Boeing and General Dynamics agree with you?

I used to do some work in the S-IVb building at McDonnell Douglas, HBCA.

So did cleaners and caterers. The fact you worked with certain people in certain buildings for certain companies does not substantiate your claims to be an engineer any more than the fact I worked at Pfizer makes me an expert on Viagra.

[alexsanchez]

"I am assuming that you think these people will support your assertion that Apollo was faked because the engineering was not up to the task..."

Why would you make an assumption like that?  I NEVER said engineering was not up to the task.

Now I'm really confused.  See, you said you were an engineer, and that you worked guidance, and that Apollo didn't have an appropriate way to guide the LM.  The correctness of this claim aside, how do you reconcile the alleged inability of the GNC engineers to come up with a usable solution with your new claim that you "NEVER said engineering was not up to the task"?

And do your high-powered space business friends agree with your claim that Apollo was a fake?

Also, thanks for the information on your undergraduate degree.  I'd still love to hear the rest of your story, as outlined in reply #66.   You've added Huntington Beach to your resume, and that you did "some work" for MacDac there... what did you do?

If I had a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from MIT, it wouldn't make me right or wrong.  The government lies all the time.  NASA is the government.  Why do people believe them?  The moon landing is a belief system.  It's a religion.  I can't prove Jesus didn't come to America, but millions of Mormons believe it.  I could show them all kinds of equations, and it wouldn't change their minds.  Governments lie, and history is on my side in that regard.

[Laurel]

If I had a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from MIT, it wouldn't make me right or wrong.  The government lies all the time.  NASA is the government.  Why do people believe them?  The moon landing is a belief system.  It's a religion.  I can't prove Jesus didn't come to America, but millions of Mormons believe it.  I could show them all kinds of equations, and it wouldn't change their minds.  Governments lie, and history is on my side in that regard.

This is just a cop-out to avoid answering questions about your engineering qualifications.

[Peter B]

If I had a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from MIT, it wouldn't make me right or wrong.  The government lies all the time.  NASA is the government.  Why do people believe them?  The moon landing is a belief system.  It's a religion.  I can't prove Jesus didn't come to America, but millions of Mormons believe it.  I could show them all kinds of equations, and it wouldn't change their minds.  Governments lie, and history is on my side in that regard.

Do you say this of the scientists from around the world who've examined the rocks supplied by the Apollo missions?

They look at them and say, "These rocks show signs of having formed in a low gravity vacuum, and of being altered by solar radiation and micrometeor impact. NASA says they're from the Moon, and they're consistent with that. They aren't from the Earth, and they didn't come to the Earth as meteorites."

How else did they come to the Earth if not by collection on the Apollo missions?

[Noldi400]

If I had a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from MIT, it wouldn't make me right or wrong.  The government lies all the time.  NASA is the government.  Why do people believe them?  The moon landing is a belief system.  It's a religion.  I can't prove Jesus didn't come to America, but millions of Mormons believe it.  I could show them all kinds of equations, and it wouldn't change their minds.  Governments lie, and history is on my side in that regard.

Probably the only thing more naive than believing that everything a government says is the truth is believing that everything the government says is a lie.

[Bob B.]

The government lies all the time.  NASA is the government.  Why do people believe them?

Because there's no evidence that they lied about Apollo.

[LunarOrbit]

The government lies all the time.  NASA is the government.

Is everything just black and white to you, Alex? Do you really believe that just because the government has lied about some things it means that everything they have ever said was a lie? Does the fact that your parents lied to you about Santa Claus when you were a kid mean that you can't believe anything they told you? Don't you see how ridiculous you're being?

Let me ask you something, Alex. Where were Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins on July 20th, 1969?

[alexsanchez]

If I had a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from MIT, it wouldn't make me right or wrong.  The government lies all the time.  NASA is the government.  Why do people believe them?  The moon landing is a belief system.  It's a religion.  I can't prove Jesus didn't come to America, but millions of Mormons believe it.  I could show them all kinds of equations, and it wouldn't change their minds.  Governments lie, and history is on my side in that regard.

Do you say this of the scientists from around the world who've examined the rocks supplied by the Apollo missions?

They look at them and say, "These rocks show signs of having formed in a low gravity vacuum, and of being altered by solar radiation and micrometeor impact. NASA says they're from the Moon, and they're consistent with that. They aren't from the Earth, and they didn't come to the Earth as meteorites."

How else did they come to the Earth if not by collection on the Apollo missions?

There are moon rocks on earth, especially in Antarctica (because they are easier to see.)  There are also martian rocks on earth.  Russia has moon rocks they brought back from unmanned missions (which means if the Apollo moon rocks actually came from the moon, it does not prove we put a man on the moon.)  Scientists also say the moon was knocked off as a chunk of the earth, which means moon rocks are made of the same material as earth rocks.

"...the current most widely accepted explanation is that the Moon formed from the debris left over after a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon

So FORGET your moon rock theory.  It's forever solidly debunked.  It does not prove anyone, even Buzz Armstrong, ever set foot on the moon.

As far as the LEM having a rendezvous radar, the radar-guided Patriot missile during the Gulf War missed 9 out of 10 targets.  That was 1991.

"...in the first Bush Gulf War, when the probability of a Patriot missile (cost: $1 to $6 million) actually taking out a Scud missile (cost: $0.22 to $1 million) was only 9 percent."
http://corporategreedchronicles.com/2011/11/25/like-the-patriot-act-there-is-nothing-patriotic-about-the-raytheon-patriot-missile/

[Laurel]

So FORGET your moon rock theory.  It's forever solidly debunked.  It does not prove anyone, even Buzz Armstrong, ever set foot on the moon.

Buzz Armstrong? No such astronaut. You can't even get the basic information about Apollo 11 right. Sad.

[cos]

What the hell does Patriot missile success rate got to do with Lunar Orbital Rendezvous? You haven't got a single clue what is involved or how it was achieved. As for being an engineer, every post you make just confirms you are not. That sort of superficial equivalance argument might be used by a lawyer but NO engineer argues this way. There are no lies in science and engineering. If what you say is true, it will be demonstratably true.
Now if you show up and say X isn't possible and we actually understand how X was achieved, we naturally expect you to explain why. By this method we can discover whether our understanding is faulty or yours. When it turns out you actually don't know how X was claimed to have been achieved in the first place and then merely state something was impossible without explaining or demonstrating why, completely undermines you. However, we can subject every claim made for the Apollo program to the same demands and guess what? It all checks out. Waving your hands around and repeating unsupported assertions is the equivalent of banging your fists on the floor and yelling 'I'm right, I'm right, I'm right'.
Impersonating an engineer is more difficult than you thought.

[alexsanchez]

The government lies all the time.  NASA is the government.

Is everything just black and white to you, Alex? Do you really believe that just because the government has lied about some things it means that everything they have ever said was a lie? Does the fact that your parents lied to you about Santa Claus when you were a kid mean that you can't believe anything they told you? Don't you see how ridiculous you're being?

Let me ask you something, Alex. Where were Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins on July 20th, 1969?

"Does the fact that your parents lied to you about Santa Claus when you were a kid mean that you can't believe anything they told you?"

My parents also lied to me about the tooth fairy, the easter bunny, and where babies come from.  I never believed them after that.

"Where were Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins on July 20th, 1969?"

I know where they weren't.