Conspiracy theorists are already trying (and failing) to discredit the Artemis II mission
The professional conspiracy theorists of the modern internet, who make their living by spouting absurd lies about long-established science to profit from fear mongering, are out in full force, as expected. They’ve been upset ever since NASA’s Artemis II mission successfully looped its crew around the moon to get a close-up view of its surface before turning around and heading home.
Your latest conspiracy theory? Confusion over how the far side of the moon could have any light shining on it in the images taken by the Artemis II crew. The implication here, of course, is that something sinister is afoot. Fortunately, there is an actual, rather simple explanation, as provided by IFLScience’s James Felton.
The sun illuminates the moon. The so-called “dark side” is not permanently dark. It is kissed by sunlight just like the side facing Earth. Pretty simple, right?
Artemis II already has conspiracy theorists in a spiral
The so-called “dark side” is not permanently dark; it receives sunlight just like the side facing Earth. The misunderstanding stems from a mixture of bad terminology and worse assumptions. Seam New York Times recently explained, scientists understand that this nickname causes a lot of unnecessary confusion. They would prefer that we start referring to it as the “far side” of the moon, as that is a much more accurate description that doesn’t implicitly implant false lunar knowledge into everyone’s heads.
The Moon is tidally locked, meaning one hemisphere always faces Earth, but both sides cycle through day and night. During Artemis II’s planned orbit, lighting conditions would naturally allow astronauts to see parts of the other side illuminated, including geological features never visible from Earth.
Unfortunately, none of that matters to the wider spectrum of conspiracy theorists. They have already made up their minds and would rather believe their own neat little narratives than accept the complexities and nuances of reality.
Although it doesn’t make much sense in this case, since the truth is no more complicated than the imagination. The conspiracy theorists use any minor technical flaw in the Artemis II live streams to discredit the entire project, seemingly unable or unwilling to believe that a live stream from the moon could be in error. I guess these people haven’t seen anyone trying to live stream from their living room in California.
Because as long as humanity is doing incredible things, like sending people to the moon, there will always be people trying to discredit those achievements. Some are true believers; most are opportunistic crooks trying to make easy money off the vulnerable and gullible. It’s just a shame they’re being algorithmically rewarded for it on social media.
The Artemis II mission represents the best of what humanity can do when we act altruistically in the hope of improving our knowledge of our universe and our place in it. Fortunately, that pursuit is infinitely more rewarding for infinitely more people than the low-effort conspiracies peddled by a few unsuspecting scammers looking to make a quick buck.
