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.

Foing told SPACE.com that the SMART-1 orbiter circling the Moon has already covered the Apollo 11, 16, 17 landing sites, as well as spots where the former Soviet Union’s Luna 16 and Luna 20 automated vehicles plopped down. The images have not yet been released.Given SMART-1’s initial high orbit, however, it may prove difficult to see artifacts, Foing explained. Using its ion engine, the probe has successfully spiraled down further to an altitude closer to the Moon.Foing said that each Apollo site, where the engine blast of the two-person landing craft stirred up the landscape, could be worthwhile targets for SMART-1 imaging.

View: Full Article | Source: Space.com

nah if it does show the sites, we'll have the people screaming that they are in on it or something like that

I can't wait for the photos to come out and then having people claim it was Photoshopped.

For conspiracy theorists, this is definitely a win-win. They won't believe any visual evidence. They'll claim it was doctored and the conspiracy gets even bigger. If no evidence can be seen, they'll say it is proof and the conspiracy gets bigger still.

Hello,this is my first post!
Well i hope they manage to go round to the dark side of the moon,and take pictures of all the 'alien bases'.

We already have lots of pictures of the far side of the moon. No alien bases have been found. How boring.

You mean we DID land on the Moon? Say it ain't so!!

Welcome to the forum Strange James.

The moon must be so cool....I wanna go up there and play jump rope.

Tell ya what why don't you write to NASA and ask 'em if they'll
take you next time they go, so you can have a "play", I mean
do some serious research, then you can come back and post
your photos....We'd believe YOU....

I cant believe anyone takes those conspiracy theories seriosuley anymore....and if I see one more reference to the "Flag waving on the Moon" BS im going to scream.

They have telescopes that can see planets billions of miles away, But why can't we zoom in on the moon and see the flag? They say they can see the marks where the moon lander landed, But wheres the flag????

Good question. The galaxies millions of light years away are very big and that flag is very small. Even so, I can't think why it would be impossible to find it. Maybe the super-scopes are booked years in advance and no one can convince the people in charge of deciding who gets to use the scopes that looking for the flag is important enough.

People just want a conspiracy theory, whether or not there is one and even when they are proved wrong they will refuse to believe it.

hhmmmm....im a little confused but cool

sad , but true .

Just a link to ESA Smart-1 for when the images are released...ive had it bookmarked since early january waiting for more images (tycho in specific )

http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/SMART-1/

The theoretical resolving power of a telescope, measured in "arc seconds", is calculated by dividing the aperture (the size of the mirror or lens) of the telescope (in inches) into 4.56. The largest telescope on Earth is the 10-meter Keck telescope in Hawaii. The "theoretical" resolving power of this telescope is 0.012", however the Earth's atmosphere limits the resolving power of any ground-based telescope to about 0.5"-1.0". The Hubble Space Telescope does not suffer from this limitation; thus, with an aperture of 94 inches, HST's resolving power is 0.05". At the Earth-Moon distance of 239,000 miles, the smallest object that can be resolved by HST is about 300 feet. The largest dimension of any hardware left behind on the Moon is 31 feet, which is the diagonal distance across the LM's footpads. No telescope, presently in existence, can see the Apollo hardware from Earth. To see any of the hardware remaining on the Moon from the Apollo landings would require a telescope at least 100m in diameter.

The Apollo 15 landing site was imaged by the Clementine lunar orbiter:

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missi...tos_010427.html

So they still didn't got the money to buy a color cam

What are you talking about?

Sadly, I fear that this stuff will never die. It’s like one of those monster movies where they keep shooting the monster but it won't die, and the guy’s going crazy and yelling "Why won't you just die already?!?"

And yet they're getting photos of the moon landing footprints?

it'll die just as soon as they return to the moon

then atleast people wont be able to say it cant be done

Uhh... those arent taken by telescopes...

If you take a picture of the Flag from Earth all you will see is the top of the pole it tied on to. Look at the pictures from the european probe shots, Right next to thoughs black spots that are landing areas, is a little tiny white dot. Look real hard and real long at it. After an hour or so you will see it!

Very nice, Well thought out post you got there, Stellar.

Check this link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7091082/

It says they are going to send the probe closer to the moon to get closer photos of the landing sites. The one they have put out really sucks - you would think they could zoom in way more than this. Stop using those $1.99 disposables!!javascript:emoticon(':D')
smilie

nasa clementine image showing the "alleged" landing sites-

more nasa images of landing site taken,not from orbit but,from a few feet away-

ok im going to assume you guys are reading these articles and i know the landing sites in question are from apollo 15 yet i ask-considering the moons weaker gravity,how much of a total percentage increase was there of the weight in extra fuel apollo 15 carried compared to apollo 11?-would the difference result in the dramatic difference in the alleged craters? also the stars not being visible is a sign of the difficulty in faking the positions from the moons perspective--also why didnt any of the astronauts take a photo with the earth in the back ground? wouldnt this be the "ultimate" form of record?anyone with links to apollo 15 lander mission photos please post em-thanx