The Lunar Reconnissance Orbiter, a NASA project, recently released photographs of the Apollo landing sites. Though low resolution images, the lunar module descent stages can be seen on the surface of the moon… exactly where NASA said they would be.

Apollo 11 descent stage on the moon.

So… it’s game over the conspiracy theorists, right?

Well, no. It appears all these new photographs have done is create a whole new load of theories I, as editor of this blog, need to comprehend and test so I can then refute those ideas. I’ve got a feeling that nonsense about crosshairs and radiation is going to see charmingly quaint over the next few months.

It would appear the favourite new toy of the theorists is, once again, shadows. Boy, am I bored of thinking about shadows. Over time, when the theorists have really had time to develop their ideas, I’ll refute these new ones, too.

The real story here is simple, and what I have always believed: some people do not want to believe. They have become so tied in their thinking that no proof, nothing at all, would actually convince them it was possible to land a man on the moon with Apollo 11.

Not even these photographs. These are the first stages of the LRO photographs, with higher resolution images due to be published soon. At present, the descent stages are nothing but a dot, albeit one that is clearly out of place with the rest of the terrain. Oh, and exactly where NASA said they would be.

There are conspiracy fans who swore these images would never be published. Over time, they’ve had to update their

Apollo 16 descent stage on the moon.

thinking. First, NASA will never try and photograph the moon, because it would show them as liars. Well, then the LRO was commissioned… so the new theory was that NASA would announce no plans to photograph the Apollo landing sites as that was “covering old ground”.

Then NASA announced they would photograph the landing sites.

Theorists started to get desperate at this point, and declared that NASA would claim an “error” with the LRO right over the landing sites – or some other technical glitch which would prevent the photographs being taken.

And now, with the release of these photographs, the new theories are already being shouted on internet forums… and it’s sad. It is incredible that the lengths some people are prepared to go to take them straight from scientific and photographic fact and into the realm of madness.

There are only so many times one can insist black is white before finally conceding you may have made a mistake. Yet the conspiracy theorists have trapped themselves in a hell of their own making; they crowed – so triumphantly! – that they and they alone saw through the “biggest hoax of all time”. Now, with proof before them, they cannot stand down and admit they were wrong. Stuck pride, a refusal to believe they were incorrect or a general distrust of the system… it doesn’t matter. They don’t want to believe.

The important thing is that these photographs – and the upcoming photographs, which will show the landing sites in much more detail – will convince some of the general populace swayed by ludicrous theories.

For me, the photograph below is the most awe-inspiring. It does not just show dots of descent stages, but footprints and tracks caused by man’s disturbance on the lunar surface. The prints are undeniable, completely out of sync with anything else on the moon, and a timely reminder that man once walked on another world.

Trackmarks on the moon.