For all those conspiracy theorists who have nothing better to do than make up stories about everything ever accomplished, comes new, clear evidence that we did in fact land on the moon.  This is actually one of the sillier conspiracy theories because even with a decent telescope, one can see evidence of the moon landings. NASA has released photos taken from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter(LRO), showing the landing sites of Apollo 12 & 14 and tracks made by men walking around the celestial body along with lunar rover tracks.  LRO also took photos of Surveyor 3, which was the third lander of the unmanned space program that essentially sent back information on the conditions on the moon, prior to the 1969 manned mission that saw Neil Armstrong take his “giant leap for mankind”.  Alan Bean, NASA astronaut and fourth man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 12 mission, took photos of the Surveyor 3 (below). But more important than dispelling conspiracy theories is the need for us to continue to explore.  Perhaps it’s a sign of the times; the fact there are so many more distractions today than there used to be but I can still remember and feel the excitement of the Apollo missions. There is nothing that compares with that today.  The entire nation was captured by the excitement.  Today, a small but active group are still fascinated by Space and its exploration. That’s the reason NASA Socials were developed; to feed the hunger of those who love space exploration and to use social media to spread the word. For some reason it’s difficult to compete with brain-dead reality shows. Back in the early 70’s, my family would sit around the TV, and watch in awe, as those brave men took off into the abyss of space.  Watching the astronauts drive the lunar rover along the surface, of the moon, dared every kid to dream of being an astronaut. The photos just released by NASA bring back those memories.  There was a sense that the United States could do anything.  JFK challenged our greatest minds and they delivered. Now we can’t even get our kids to read at grade level.  Perhaps it’s because we rested on our laurels or we got lazy, or there aren’t enough challenges to keep us motivated.  But whatever the reason, we must again dream and dream big.  A manned Mars mission is a huge and expensive challenge but isn’t it worth it?  When I look at the photos from Curiosity, I can see myself walking on the red planet.  Although desolate, there are places on earth that don’t look that different.  We must do a better job of teaching science and math to our kids, to make both a requirement in order to prepare them for the future. Why is Math and Science so important you might ask.  How often do we use science in daily life?  The answer is simple, Only In Math And Science Can We Find Universal Truth!  No where else!! The rest of what and who we are, is an opinion and you know what they say about opinions?!