Conspiracies: Past and Present : The Moon Landing

Personally - I do believe we landed on the moon many years ago. There is much evidence to suggest that we, as part of humanity, made it to the Moon. The possible conspiracy that we did not is implausible and its claims are easily refuted.

The Space Race

Following the end of World War 2 - there was what was known as a 'power vacuum'. The two great super powers, capitalist America and communist USSR, played out the 'Cold War'. No declarations of war were sent, but espionage, distrust, nuclear weapons and military intervention in smaller countries helped generate strong tensions between one another.

As apart of this long Cold War - was the Space Race. The race to the moon. Russia had the jump on the USA. Soviet Russia managed to get a space probe to hit the moon in 1959 and had Yuri Gagarin orbit the earth in 1961.

So after a mad dash, the US finally landed some men (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin) on the moon on the 16th July, 1969.
Michael Collins remained in the spacecraft until they had finished and then began the trip back to earth.

Now to the conspiracy.

The Conspiracy

The most advocated conspiracy is that the US Moon landing was filmed in a studio. Conspiracists have generated a variety of evidence that would seem to suggest the Moon landing was filmed in a controlled setting to generate the desired effect. The following are numbered so you can match the conspiracy with the proof that debunks it under the 'facts' section.

Flag is waving - how could it possibly be waving when there is no atmosphere or wind on the Moon?
No cameras - who took the photo of the reflection in the visor of the astronaut?
No stars - why is there no comment or evidence of the stars being seen whilst on the Moon?
No landing crater - if there was a space craft that had landed on the Moon, why is there no crater to prove it?
Footprints are too clear - a hard surface like the Moon would make it difficult to generate a large, clear, footprint

The Facts

Now for the facts that disprove the conspiracy.

The flag pole was bent and moved as the astronauts twisted the pole into the Moon's surface
The cameras were attached to the individuals space suits - and thus, did not need to carry cameras
The light from the Sun reflects off the Moon's surface and makes it difficult to see stars
Unlike as portrayed in the movies, spacecraft touches down relatively softly as not to disturb the surface
The surface of the moon is actually more like a volcanic ash or dust which meant the footprint was quite possible

Although not linked to the 5 points above, the fact that a vast quantity of moon rocks was brought back to Earth which were hugely different to that of rocks on Earth further supports the plausibility that man did make it to the Moon.

Conclusion

At a first glance, you can see where the conspiracy comes from. Occurrences such as a waving flag which should not wave in a vacuum and a footprint that could not possibly penetrate the Moon's surface.
However, on closer inspection, we see that there is much more evidence to suggest that the Moon Landing was quite real - and a remarkable achievement by humanity.