How easy would it to be able to fake a moon landing now?

since we beat the Apollo moon landing "hoax" issue to death. Would it be possible today, especailly with the current US government and it's propaganda of fear caused by 9/11, and the internet, to be abel to fake a moon landing?

Faking a moon landing today would be easier than ever before. With the special effects and filming capabilities present in movies today you could fake everything any mind can dream up.

- Attero

Edit: It would also be a heck of a lot cheaper. And since the USA's budget is in such a hole, there is plenty of reason to fake space-related ventures.

[edit on 13-1-2006 by Attero Auctorita]

Originally posted by Attero Auctorita
Faking a moon landing today would be easier than ever before. With the special effects and filming capabilities present in movies today you could fake everything any mind can dream up.

maybe...that kinda goes both ways.

I think it would be harder now, then it was in the Apollo era. Sure special effects are far better and cheaper. But When they (Nasa) go back around 2018, High Def will be the norm, so people will notice everything is high detail...making it very hard to fool hundreds of millions of people watching, as well as thousands who will view the video is extreme detail and pick it apart to make sure its legit. Apollo cameras weren't very good, but the new ones will see everything, including stars. Plus by them its possible that there will even be a few telescopes operational that will be able to see the astronauts in real time, which will help corroborate the whole thing.

I think it would be very easy. You can see what some movie-making companies can already do. Now add that with an unlimited budget supplied by the government.

Originally posted by Murcielago

Originally posted by Attero Auctorita
Faking a moon landing today would be easier than ever before. With the special effects and filming capabilities present in movies today you could fake everything any mind can dream up.

maybe...that kinda goes both ways.

I think it would be harder now, then it was in the Apollo era. Sure special effects are far better and cheaper. But When they (Nasa) go back around 2018, High Def will be the norm, so people will notice everything is high detail...making it very hard to fool hundreds of millions of people watching, as well as thousands who will view the video is extreme detail and pick it apart to make sure its legit. Apollo cameras weren't very good, but the new ones will see everything, including stars. Plus by them its possible that there will even be a few telescopes operational that will be able to see the astronauts in real time, which will help corroborate the whole thing.

You think it'll be high def then? I bet that's what people said in the 60's, but we still have crappy quality on space videos :p

Anyway, I think it would be relativly easy to make an impressive moon landing. Consider the Lord Of The Rings movie. Look at Helms Deep or Minas Tririth footage. You can hardly tell if its faked or real even in the detail! The only reason we think its fake is because we KNOW its fake... For the moon, that wouldnt be a factor.

I think it would be harder actually. We have so much information and technology availible to us that I think it would be harder to fool the general public now, compaired to people in the 60's. I'm sure there are more amature astronomers now (with access to better telescopes) then there were in the 60's. I also image there are more amature radio astronomers as well. They would be able to tell if any signal was coming from the moon or not for sure.

I also don't think the level of special effects we have today are up to the task either. It doesn't matter how much money you through at it. It mostly depends on the skills of your artists. I have yet to see one movie that looks 100% believable. I think LotR's comes kind of close, but then they used a lot of real life miniatures with some CG, so that makes a huge differance.

This brings me to another point. In order to fake this. You're going to need lots of artists and a production crew and all that to build and model all this stuff. You'd probably want the best people in the film industry one could find too. Do you seriously think all these people are going to keep a secret like this? I'd highly doubt it.

I'd also think if it was filmed in HD quality, it would be harder to fake. Think of all the detail they will have to make sure is perfect. So again, I don't think they could pull it off today at all.

To answer my own question, I think with the numerous amater astronomers out there, somehting has to be sent to the moon, and it has to send radio messages back... if nothign else via a repeater otherwise people will know it is a fake.

you dont have to send astronauts up, or even land on the moon. But you would need to send somethign there for everyone to see and "witness"

in fact, you could probly send up the recording to the "probe" and brodcast it from the probe.

If the moon landing was to be faked now we would know if they did the following things: first, if the video quality is too good (we do not have wireless technology that can broadcast good quality video from the moon yet) second, there are certain observatories that would jump at the chance to promote their ability for someone to watch the moon landing as it happens via the telescope. if none of them offer any sort of commercialization for it than its prolly fake.

actaully shyataroo, we cannot even get a high enough resolution with earth based telescope (or even the hubble) to see the apollo landing sites with any high enough resolution to make it clear. But they were able to track the apollo modules, especailyl when they vented gases or liquids.

Originally posted by Jehosephat
actaully shyataroo, we cannot even get a high enough resolution with earth based telescope (or even the hubble) to see the apollo landing sites with any high enough resolution to make it clear. But they were able to track the apollo modules, especailyl when they vented gases or liquids.

ther goes my hopes and dreams of spying on the moon-people in their showers by 2018, we could have a telescope that is powerful enough to see them... but the pollution would get in the way and in 2012 the world is gonna end anyway.