antet 2

How far can we go ?

"I suppose that if we would reach the edge of the world, we would find there somebody who is going beyond."

- Henry David Thoreau –

....................


"Through Giving You Shall Receive"

Find out who said this, see why he said it and, then, go beyond this starting point.



20 sept. 2011

Why the exploration of the Moon has been abandoned ?

Apollo 18,  2011
"Apollo 18" (directed by Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego, produced by Timur Bekmambetov) is the latest film production which comes to (re)fuel the Conspiracy Theory about the real reasons that led the Great Powers to put an end to the Moon exploration programs.

Although it was promoted on the market as a "found footage film" (see also The Blair Witch Project - 1999, Paranormal Activity - 2007, and Cloverfield - 2008), i.e. a film made exclusively by the editing of some real shots which have been rediscovered after a long time, Apollo 18” is actually a "mockumentary", a fiction film, created by a director and played by genuine actors, in which imaginary events are presented in a realistic form, similar to a documentary.

The intention of such a strategy is obvious: the illusion of reality attached to some imaginary events aims at arousing the curiosity of the viewers and at raising their expectations of the film, which in turn ensures the commercial success of the film.

Since the movie was released on 2 September 2011 in the United States and Canada, its synopsis is already available on Wikipedia and its message could be briefly summarized as follows: The “Apollo 18” mission, which according to the official announcement of NASA was cancelled, actually took place secretly,  in December 1974, and revealed the existence of some extraterrestrial entities on the Moon, entities that attacked and destroyed the American mission and also a Soviet mission that had landed secretly on the Moon before. According to the film, this would be the real reason why the Great Powers have suddenly stopped the space programs designed for Moon exploration.

As far as the public debate mentioned in the previous post is concerned, "Apollo 18" provides its own answers to some of the big questions related to the Moon exploration. Thus, the film tells us that
-         the Moon landings really happened;
-     the Soviet Union also had men on the Moon but this achievement was kept secret;
-        there is indeed some alien presence on the Moon, but that presence is hostile to humans.

Regarding the official reaction of the U.S. government, what we know at present is that NASA, which usually gives professional advice on science-fiction film productions, has refused its services for this filmaccusing its promoters of advertising a false "found footage film".

It remains to be seen how the public will react to it, but, for the moment, one thing is rather clear: despite its promotion strategy, “Apollo 18” doesn’t seem to provide any new evidence on the Moon exploration highly debated topic, except for the assumptions and speculations we are already familiar with.


15 sept. 2011

The Moon: legitimate questions still persist.

www.sxc.hu
The Moon is the natural satellite of the planet Earth. According to the general opinion. And yet, there are some voices claiming that the Moon is not a natural object, but rather an artificial one, created by some advanced alien civilization. However, until proven otherwise, we should accept that the Earth's satellite is still a natural object.

At the same time, the Moon is one of the main "characters" in almost all ancient mythologies and recently, i.e. in the last 50 years, it has became a "character" of a vast contemporary mythology also.
  
A series of certain facts (the somehow abrupt cease of the U.S. Apollo Program in 1975, a Program which, according to the official data, landed no less than 12 people on the Moon; these 40 years that have passed without another human mission to be sent there; those bizarre similarities between the Apollo Program and the facts described by Jules Verne in his novel "From Earth to the Moon"the fact that no other state except the United States has ever claimed to have landed on the Moon) have given and still continue to give rise a lot of suspicions and questions, which do not seem to have received any totally convincing answers until now.

  • Did man ever reach the Moon or was everything just a setup in the context of the Cold War?
  • In the same context, being given the international prestige at stake, why did the Soviet Union fail to send a crew on the Moon ? Or did USSR land there but just never acknowledged it  publicly ?
  • If the Americans really got there, did they tell us everything about what they found there ?
  • Are these 40 years with no flight to the Moon due, as officially stated, to the lack of public interest for such a return, to the high and unjustified costs, to the lack of scientific, economic or political motivation, or to some other reasons that have not been released yet ?
  • Is there something happening on the Moon that we are not told about ? Are there any extraterrestrial beings present there ? Or are the Great Powers performing some secret activities there, without informing the public about these ?
  • Is there something hidden on the Far Side of the Moon ?
  • If only eight years were needed in the 1960s to prepare the first Moon landing, why did President  George Bush in 2004 set 2020 as a deadline for a new lunar landing ? Given the huge technology progress registered from 1960 to date, shouldn't be likely that a new landing to be made at least two times faster and not two times slower ?
  • Why did the new U.S. administration in 2010  completely reject the idea of ​​a return on the Moon, but set planet Mars as the goal of a manned mission in 2030 ?
All these questions and probably many other that might exist, have turned the natural satellite of the Earth, as I have already noted above, into a genuine "contemporary myth".

It is obvious that the Conspiracy Theory always made the ​​public delight. Mystery is one of the challenges which the human mind, curious by nature, faces with prompt and intense reactions.

Taking everything into account, where might the truth be lying ?  Arguments seem to be strong on both sides.

On the one hand, it is somehow difficult to accept that all Moon landings of the Apollo Program were just a huge hoax, delivered on a global scale.

On the other hand, one can't help thinking that a 40 years' break in lunar exploration is something very strange. At least to keep us in shape, if not for the scientific benefits as well, man should have got there at least once every 10 years.

In this context, marked by suspicions and uncertainty, a new film is coming to tell us something extra related to this topic.

(to be continued)