the reason russia has done better in space is because they did not let corportations mangle the focus. These new folks may very well ruin things.

The sad history of the Shuttle, and the politics behind why NASA couldn't change direction despite hundred-fold cost overruns and many lives lost, shows you everything you need to know about why governments fail in space.

I see plenty of times you need "big government" but the case for privatizing all of the space sector, which is non-essential to the public and needs innovative research, always looked pretty strong to me.

he's absolutely convinced that the U.S. faked the moon landings, stating that our primitive computer technology couldn't pull it off, that our Astronauts would've died from radiation poisoning, the moon dust didn't kick up high enough and there seems to be a shadow of a light boom over the Astronauts during their walks among other arguments.

We were at a Christmas Party and had passionate discussions bordering on arguments but I couldn't convince him otherwise, he is getting his misinformation from Youtube or some other website.

Thanks for the thread, bananas.

...to look into it. I have looked into several so-called "conspiracy theories" and I'm convinced that two of them are not just theories (9/11 and the JFK assassination). There is too much credible evidence that the official stories are wrong. There is too much evidence, also, that relatively small cabals of well-positioned and strongly motivated people could (and did) pull them off, and were able to cover their tracks.

However, it wasn't just one shot at the moon. It was many (involving about 15 different moon walks, as I recall). And that means the collusion--and living total lies all the way to the grave--of many astronauts, of their entire support groups, and of thousands and thousands of engineers and support personnel. It is conceivable that a small group of astronauts and a small, tight, secretive group of engineers might pull off one fake visual moon walk. The motivation to do so is also conceivable. It would be the same motivation as for the JFK assassination--rivalry with, and hatred of, the Soviet Union**, which was quite rampant in the halls of power during that era (1960s-1970s). However, I simply cannot believe that thousands of engineers--who, in particular are vigorously trained in truthfulness as to physical systems--and all the thousands of other people involved, including many astronauts--could possibly hold such a lie together for so long.

Aside from the insult to American engineers of that era--who did it with slide rules, and without the sophisticated, fast computers of today--it's just not feasible as a conspiracy.

The need to believe in a conspiracy is different from the evidence for a conspiracy. It sounds like you were up against the need, rather than good evidence. I happen to think that the two conspiracies I mentioned have so polluted our public discourse that we, as Americans, are literally living in an unreal mental world, with regard to our country and its overt and hidden leadership. This has many ill consequences, among them an irrational belief in conspiracies that are not credible. In short, as a society we are sick in the head--and one possible manifestation of that is the projection of conspiratorial thoughts onto "safer" conspiracy theories than the ones I mentioned.

One way to handle this might be to stop arguing, and seek a compassionate view of the need to believe this particular thing (the all the moon shots were fake). Another might be to ask, well, what does that mean, and what should we do about it? Is everything the government says a lie, or just this? Are there other lies we should look into? How DO we know what is real and what isn't, with an obviously lying government and corporate media (on so many issues)? And what can we, as citizens who want transparency, do about it?

Turn the discussion toward a more useful purpose.

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**Highly recommended: "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters," by James Douglass. Douglass brilliantly describes the mind-set of the people in powerful circles who didn't just object to JFK refusing to nuke Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and didn't just object to his backchannels to Krushchev and Castro, and didn't just object to his Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (first effort to control nuclear weapons), his Russian "Wheat Deal" and other friendly gestures toward Russia, but considered JFK a "traitor," greatly feared his presentation of a world peace platform to the American people in 1964 (he would have won, hands down--as LBJ did, on a false peace platform), and killed JFK because of these things. Douglass is absolutely convincing on the details of the assassination and the motivation of the assassins, as well as on the coverup.

Thats the biggest reason I never believed it was faked back when this first came out. They would have LOVED to accuse us of putting on a fake show. That never happened.
All your friends "theories" have been easily quashed many years over.
But the easiest is the fact that you can see all 6 landing sites from earth!!

Amount of intelligence has little to do with peoples ability to believe "conspiracies". A lot of so-called educated people think a missile hit the Pentagon on 9/11 too. They may be educated, but they're also ignorant. They'll discount ANY explanation that disproves their theories! You see it today with venezuela; every time really bad news comes out of there, which is almost daily, some folks here will just blame the CIA and walk away

And I guess they were Flat Earthers before that.

Science is taking it in the backside nearly everywhere including America.

I imagine thats where a lot of the money will be going

BEIJING, Dec.28 (Xinhuanet) -- Russia has faced a tough year, with sanctions and low oil prices keeping the ruble low, and the investment climate shrinking. Russia's economy relies heavily on oil and gas revenues, but many countries are trying to wean off their dependence on Russian crude produce, and on oil in general. So how is all this affecting the economy, and what can we expect 2016 to bring to Russia?

Russia's economy is not doing well. The ruble has again dropped in value, mirroring the falling oil prices, while prices of everyday products are on the rise. Many Russians, even in Moscow, are feeling the pinch.

"The big problem for Russia right now is consumption which is still getting worse. Most of the year its been down by 9% and its suddenly become worse around last month or so," said Tom Adshead, CEO of Marco Advisory.

Experts predict that Russia is unlikely to recover next year. But prices of goods are expected to continue to rise, affecting the poorest the most. The question is -- will the government start diversifying the economy and implement policies that help people face the challenges ahead.

Going to guess they don't see much of a recovery in oil prices in the long term. Add to that, probably think, like many, private investment is now the way to go.

Put an economic need to build a moon base first (such as mining, etc.) which develops the technology to develop it, then purchase the technology via military and develop the necessary infrastructure to protect it.