The Penchant for Conspiratorial Jumps.

Greetings. The United States had not landed anything, manned or unmanned, on the Moon since December of 1972. That changed on February 22nd of 2025 when the unmanned Odysseus moon lander touched down at 6:23pm Eastern Standard Time.

When the lander commenced broadcasting signals back towards the Earth, the strength of the signal was immediately seen as somewhat less powerful than expected by the technicians in charge of the probe's operation and mission itinerary. When this particular bit of news became public knowledge, the conspiracy theorists immediately began their speculations. Some made statements alleging that the mission of the probe was to somehow "hide something" from the public, although what that something is was not elaborated on. Some made the wild claim of "aliens!" Such rhetoric is typical of the UFO subculture, particularly the "woo" crowd. As it turns out, mission technicians believe that one of the probe's landing pads made contact with a surface rock, making the probe tip on its side when touchdown was completed. The same situation occurred with the Japanese SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) moon lander, which tipped on its side upon touching down on the lunar surface on the 19th of January of 2025.

Taking a nonsensical approach to the issue, where is the proof that aliens have interfered with our exploratory efforts? Where are all the alien constructs that some authors claim are on the lunar surface? Where are the towers of glass? Where are the buildings made of alien materials left behind by extraterrestrials? We have clear pictures of the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, all with high levels of detail, yet all we have from the conspiracy theorists are fuzzy photos allegedly from the surface of the Moon, only a few hundred thousand miles away. Should those photos not be crystal clear? One would think so, but I suppose they were taken by the same person who captures all the photographs of aliens, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster. Someone needs some modern technology, it is not 1965 anymore folks.

Back to the grounded, space travel is an extremely difficult undertaking, rife with a whole slew of challenges, ranging from technical difficulties, to mechanical failure, to good ol' human error. Beyond the technical, outer space offers many naturally occurring hazards which can destroy even the most meticulously laid plans; solar flares, radiation belts, micrometeorites, etc. Add in the usual launch delays and political financial challenges, and you have a truly arduous endeavor. Even in the best of times, space travel is a painstakingly tough goal to achieve, hence the occasional struggles. So when an image is out of focus, or a spacecraft goes off course, or a lander malfunctions upon making touchdown, it is part of the process of space exploration, and likely not the result of anything out of the ordinary, or extraordinary.  

Critical thinking. It works wonders when put into practice.

Note: This is a previously published article, but with the recent problems with NASA's Artemis 2 mission, I felt a re-publication was in order. 

Thank you for your time consideration.