Did we go to the moon?

[d000hg]

I go into an argument about the moon landings with a couple once.
I asked them ... how the heck did the lander parts, buggy, flag and disks get up on the moon. They are clearly visible with a telescope.
Their reply was that a satellite could have done it.

Man that's some satellite technology!

An automated ship would be a plausible option
Or they could demand to see the pictures, and then claim they are fake, or that they're too indistinct. Have you got an example?

The statistical arguments about billions of galaxies having billions of stars that could have a suitable planet... they are meaningless unless we know the chances of life spontaneously developing from raw materials. That could be even more way-out - a once-in-a-universe event.

Yeah exactly. We can't even guess how many planets there are yet but we don't have any clue if there were 1000 other Earths exactly like ours, how many would have life.

I've always wanted to know the answer to the question how many times has life sparked into existence on this planet? Is everything we see from one common ancestor, or did life spring up independently more than once?

[VectraMan]

An automated ship would be a plausible option
Yeah exactly. We can't even guess how many planets there are yet but we don't have any clue if there were 1000 other Earths exactly like ours, how many would have life.

Even if there were a 1000 with life that roughly followed the same pattern as on earth, what are the chances of one of them being at a similar state of evolution to enable us to have a meaningful conversation? Chances are they'd either be single celled slime, or they'd be so far evolved and hyper-intelligent they'd see us as single celled slime.

[d000hg]

I'm not sure about the hyper-intelligent angle. Hyper-intelligence would either have to evolve as a preferential trait or a species would have to get to the point they can artificially enhance themselves.

[minestrone]

My view has always been that if they did not do it the Russians would have known and told the world.

[VectraMan]

I'm not sure about the hyper-intelligent angle. Hyper-intelligence would either have to evolve as a preferential trait or a species would have to get to the point they can artificially enhance themselves.

Or they would have evolved to a point where they were able to create self-aware artificial-intelligence, and be wiped out by it. So I think it's fair to say if we ever discover intelligent life it'll be SkyNet, and we'll soon be overrun with terminators demanding our clothes, boots and motorcycles.

[Paddy]

Looks real to me.

[wobbegong]

Europa, Callisto and Ganymede probably all have vast internal oceans, so I think we should be able to find something with more educational achievements that yourself.

Aside from the spelling mistake, a robust hypothesis.

[d000hg]

Europa, Callisto and Ganymede probably all have vast internal oceans, so I think we should be able to find something with more educational achievements that yourself.

So your prediction is that watery oceans generally have life?

[minestrone]

So your prediction is that watery oceans generally have life?

Where did I say that?

[hyperD]

Any entity that has solved the energy/time conundrum that allows them to traverse the vast distance to get here would not make their presence known, and would be observing our world as children do when they visit a zoo. Probably saying: "How quaint, do you remember when we were like that 2,000 years ago".