Apollo

Thirty-nine years ago today, men from Earth made the first landing on another world. Centuries and millenia from now, if humanity successfully scatters among the stars, the feat of Apollo 11 will be seen as the seminal event of the twentieth century and one of the defining moments of human history. Yet, some people around today argue the lunar landings of Apollo never actually happened.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is scheduled to go into orbit around the Moon next year. LRO's mission will be to map the entire surface of the Moon in unprecedented detail in preparation for the next wave of human exploration, now scheduled to commence in 2020. LRO will operate from a polar orbit; as the Moon rotates on its axis, the entire surface wil slide directly under LRO during the course of its mission.

Though the goal of LRO is to map out the future, the extraordinary acuity of its cameras will enable it to spot the Apollo landing sites. None of the lunar probes since Apollo have had that capability. Spotting the bases of the lunar modules of Apollo, or the lunar rovers, from orbit would be a remarkable achievement, and should silence those who have a conspiratorial view of history.

Of course, those who don't believe the evidence from Apollo probably won't believe the images of LRO, either.