The Art Neuro Weblog

The End of Conspiracy no 1,675,434
It's not really official until a third party verifies it, but now it's uncontestible. The European Space Agencies' SMART-1 lunar probe has sent back images of the old Soviet and American touchdown sites on the Moon.

A European spacecraft now orbiting the Moon could turn out to be a time machine of sorts as it photographs old landing sites of Soviet robotic probes and the areas where American Apollo crews set down and explored.

New imagery of old Apollo touchdown spots, from the European Space Agency's (ESA) SMART-1 probe, might put to rest conspiratorial thoughts that U.S. astronauts didn't go the distance and scuff up the lunar landscape. NASA carried out six piloted landings on the Moon in the time period 1969 through 1972.

Fringe theorists have said images of the waving flag -- on a Moon with no atmosphere -- and other oddities show that NASA never really went to the Moon. No serious scientist or spaceflight historian doubts the success of the Apollo program, however.

"We are observing some of the landing sites for calibration and ground truth purposes," said Bernard Foing, Chief Scientist of the ESA Science Program.

So much for that stuff about Stanley Kurbick we related last year as a joke. :)

- Art Neuro