Should NASA Try To Refute Crackpots?

angkor writes "CNN has an interesting article on the dilemma faced by NASA: what is the proper way to deal with far-out theories given exposure (and legitimacy) by the media--ignore the crackpots or refute them?"

Comments

Evidence

[legomad]

http://moonhoax.com/site/evidence.html

Bring me to the moon.

[ottawanker]

"The issue of trying to do a targeted response to this is just lending credibility to something that is, on its face, asinine," NASA chief Sean O'Keefe said in late November after the dust settled."

Why bother trying to convince the "crackpots"? What percentage of the population are they, and does it really concern NASA? Maybe the most telling thing about the whole story is that NASA does seem concerned.

If they really want to prove them wrong, then take me (and everyone else) to the moon, and we'll check out that flag and footprints to see if they're there.

Nasa will not be able to convince all the "crackpots" until there is a viable station on the moon that people can go to for vacation.

I hate ignorance

[Keebler71]

Bad astronomy

Re:NASA would call them crackpots wouldn't they?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.redzero.demon.co.uk/moonhoax/

This is probably the best site for refuting any arguments that the moon landings were a hoax.

Re:You can't see the lander

[Open_The_Box]

True, you can't see the lander. But to the best of my knowledge (and I don't have any verification or proof of this since I haven't tried it to find out - but then that's what this is all about anyway, isn't it...) it is possible to bounce a laser beam off the surface of the moon from the earth. This is one way to measure the distance of the moon from the earth - the other ways aren't direct measurements but are based on calculations of orbits and times and other observations.

Anyway, the point is that the surface of the moon is not 'shiny' enough to reflect a laser beam back to earth. The only reason this is possible is due to the corner cubes scattered on the surface of the moon by the visiting astronauts. Yes it's a small area but large enough if you know where to point your laser.

And the light returns to it's source because that's the way corner cubes work rather than just reflecting the beam away into space.

So there we have it. A test you can do from the earth's surface. And if the doubters still doubt you can get them to check the equipment over. "Just look into the light. You'll see there's nothing wrong with it. Briefly anyway..."