Why do some people doubt the official moon landing story?

I recently answered a Quora.com question about why some people doubt the official version of events in 1969 and doubt we really sent astronauts to the moon.

I answered:

“Never A Straight Answer makes it hard to believe them about anything.

Modern digital analysis of the original moon landing tapes could clarify whether the footage was real or faked.

Oops! NASA accidentally taped over it. All 45 tapes.

Good news! Back up files were found on a computer in Pennsylvania!

But NASA ordered them destroyed.

So it makes some of us wonder what might have been discovered up there. Top guesses include: evidence from a previous, technologically advanced human civilization (like Atlantis) getting to the moon before the last pole shift over 12,000 years ago. They’d never admit finding that; they’d keep it secret and reverse engineer the technology. The same goes for evidence of the moon as an alien observation base, though we might not get access to craft of living aliens.

There are also many doubts that the technology we had in 1969 was truly capable of working as described on the moon. If it did, and nothing belief-threatening was found there, why did we stop going back?”

Someone quickly commented:

“… because argument by name-calling is always valid.

And I’ll bet you can’t back up your claim that “modern digital analysis” could do anything.

Also: Nobody has ever said that the originals of all of the data from all of the landings was destroyed. That one is completely made-up in the imaginations of “hoax theory” dreamers. A good piece of evidence of the “made up” nature of that is your “45 tapes.” You apparently have no clue about 1960s computer technology.

And best of all: You cannot name even one single piece of technology that would be required for a 3 day trip to the moon that would be outside of relatively well-understood and very publicly known aerospace engineering technology of the 1960s. Go ahead and try. I dare you. (But note that, in 10 years of asking, no “hoax theory” promoter I’ve asked has ever come up with even a somewhat interesting answer.)”

I responded:

Moon landing tapes got erased, NASA admits

Reuters said ten years ago: “NASA admitted in 2006 that no one could find the original video recordings of the July 20, 1969, landing…. they were part of a batch of 200,000 tapes that were degaussed — magnetically erased — and re-used to save money.”

And why should an average person like me be expected to comment on technology “outside of relatively well-understood and very publicly known aerospace engineering technology”? Are you seriously saying my comments on why some people doubt the official story (I think we did land on the moon, by the way) are worthless because I’m not well versed in aerospace engineering technology beyond what is generally and publicly known?

I just had a long conversation with one of my best friends, who happens to be a former NASA employee heading the electrical engineering department at the university he teaches at. I’ll admit he doesn’t deviate from the official story; he doesn’t doubt NASA or think any lies were told. I also spoke with Dr. Robert M. Wood for about 45 minutes on Tuesday. He worked at McDonnell Douglas for 43 years and tried to back engineer an anti-gravity engine. Read his books and see what that very knowledgeable expert thinks. I have two older coworkers who were engineers that designed and built part of the lunar landing module. One thinks NASA is legit and one thinks they covered up the truth. So what difference does it make if you have the engineering knowledge or not? Some trust Uncle Sam and some don’t.

FWIW: The main engineering obstacles seem to be not a need for new technology, but the lack of a launch rocket capable of boosting the payload of a manned capsule – followed by NASA’s wants (but not needs) of developing equipment to get water and hydrogen extracted from lunar dust, and to built a lunar space station first.”

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Dear blog readers – what are your thoughts?