Category: Space

I tend to watch debunking of varies “genres” as a bit of guilty pleasure but also as a learning experience. Debunking Flat Earthers (or Flerfs) is no exception to that.

In the wake of Artemis’ successful go around the moon, Flat Earthers have come out of the wood works to cry foul yet again. But it’s already proving a little bit more difficult for them. Instead of coming right out and striking back with their usual talking point, they were left more confused than anything.

One of immediate questions during the launch was why they kept cutting back to the rocket as it flew further away. Or why was the just quality of the live streams? Why fallback visualization of Artemis when they couldn’t pick up any live feeds? And don’t get me started on the delays that caused April 1st, 2026, launch date. All of these are fair questions that I’m sure any laymen would ask. That’s why most of these debunking channels are geared more as edutainment than pure mockery.

Visualizations

I think the fallback visualization was the biggest surprise to them. Because, well, it’s obviously CGI and it makes no attempt to hide it. It literary says, “visualization” on the top left hand corner. Their whole conspiracy hinges on CGI and there it is. Open and honest about what it is. But that’s just a visual representation of the ship based on telemetry data for when they lose connection with the live feed. Hardly the crew in front of green screen. Frankly, it’s amazing they were able to get any live footage at all. Deep Space Network isn’t exactly 4G.

What many don’t know is that local news stations had to do something similar for the Apollo missions preciously because NASA didn’t have the technology to pull off the visualizations we see today. Flerfs argue that NASA hired Stanley Kubrick for Apollo 11 but what’s often overlooked is that 2001: A Space Odyssey came out a full decade after the Moon landings. The technology to pull off what they claim to have happened just wasn’t didn’t exist at that time.

Hell, I didn’t even know this! They didn’t go live until they were on the ground.

Soviet Union

But while one could easily go in circles explaining the technicalities of why it wasn’t the fake, one fairly new revaluation pretty much destroys the whole conspiracy theory. If it was fake, why didn’t the Soviet Union speak up? That’s the simple question. One has to remember the whole reason we had the space race in the first place was because Russia spooked the living shit out of the USA with Sputnik.

So if anyone is going to cry foul about Artemis today, it would be Russia. They have every motivation to do so.

During the first two weeks of April, 2026, we saw the crew of Artemis II make their way around the moon and back in ten days. They actually accomplished that in nine! Which is impressive in it’s own right. Just like that, I think it’s safe to say these people will go down in history as legends. The success of this mission has basically kept it off of Congress’ chopping block even as the current administration seeks to find new ways of further dismantling NASA.

Recently, I’ve spent the last year digitally collecting everything NASA after I discovered First Woman comic and later D&D campaign created under the previous administration. Obviously, both got axed under this regime because heaven forbid we have a little representation and fun. Sure, the latter is at least still there but I doubt we’ll be seeing any updates.

So I didn’t think much of Artemis II. Barely knew it even existed, if I’m being honest. This was even more compounded by later delays that lead up to its eventual April 1st launch. (Which Flat Earthers have been exploiting that fact.) Knowing this administration, I just took the piss out of it. So when it actually happened I was like, “wait, they’re really doing this!?” And my cynicism faded away into optimism and hope. And that’s what we all need right now.

This new regime wants us to live in fear. And they’re very legit reasons to be afraid. But Artemis, just like Apollo before it, shows what happens when we put our differences behind us and work together.