That's an extremely loaded question, which can be easily flipped around. What would you say is more likely? That the US fumbled around and managed to somehow pull off an unprecedented publicity stunt by a mix of luck and skill, or that they had cutting edge technology way ahead of its time that they were then unable to reproduce in the 60 years that followed?
The technology wasn't that advanced for it's time (to land on the moon). It was just super risky. I'll put it this way, when I was a kid I would pull stupid and dangerous stunts all the time (like jumping down a full set of stairs) without a care in the world. I walked into the ocean barefoot, I'd jump rivers. Now I'm older and well aware of the risks of breaking my neck or standing on a dangerous sea creature and getting stung, I'd not do those things unless I were absolutely sure of the measures I'd need to take to keep myself safe. This is how I see NASA in the early stages. Can they land on the moon? sure, is it super risky? yes but they didn't care much for the risks so long as they won. Would they do it now, knowing how massively risky it is with little reward? I don't think so. They aren't in a space race or a cold war, they haven't got much to prove and their budget has declined because people care less about it now than when it was super important to 'beat those darn soviets'.
The official moon landing footage is of extremely poor quality - you're not going to get anywhere near analysing the lighting on it, because you don't have sufficient data points to do so.
I would disagree, but you're free to have that opinion if that's how you feel. What would you say about all of the other missions to the moon? video footage and photos alike. The other countries that have sent unmanned rovers to the moon that all seem to come back looking awfully similar. China and Russia would be the least likely countries to defend Amercia if they were faking such things.
It's basically impossible to keep such a massive lie from being fully exposed and I'm not talking about some illustrator/comedian whistleblower or some guy that thought it was too risky to go to the moon. of the 500+ people who've been into space and the 12 who've supposedly stepped on the moons surface it's crazy to think that all of those people or their friends and family would stay quiet about the moon landings and the earth being flat. That's already at least 1000 people with first/second hand experience of this stuff and by then, the conspiracy will already have collapsed to the public. This is why I can only assume the space race and the globe is real. You're free again to disagree and obviously, you will do for whatever reasons. Even smaller government secrets have had whistleblowers which have caused huge public outcry. I will admit though if an astronaut does come forward and claims it's all fake I'd find the chaos pretty fun to watch.
Once again - I'd suggest that you first prove that you could infer any of that from the footage, rather than what you expect the conditions on the Moon to be.
What would the point be in demonstrating my ability to do this to you when you'll simply disagree anyway? I believe it's you who needs to do this to prove it to yourself. If you aren't capable I can't help you with that. As is the way with the majority of flat earthers, unless you do these things yourself I don't think you'll believe anyone with opposing views. I won't waste my time demostrating to you my own ability. I will say though that since my area of expertise is CGI I'm reasonably confident. Can you prove the videos were in fact made in a studio?
I hope you can see why I don't find this approach persuasive.
Yes I can see why you wouldn't. All I can say is that my first hand experience with the government is that I get the opposite impression of anything close to a hivemind or anything capable of pulling off such a massive conspiracy. That's not to write it off entirely as impossible. I mean hell, maybe the 'real' government hide behind their moronic fake government persona as a mask. Maybe by some absoutely miniscule fraction of a chance they've managed to keep this whole hoax quiet. I'd be impressed and to be honest, if it turned out the moon landings were a hoax, I'd be impressed and interested to see how they managed that. I've really got nothing to gain or lose from it being real or fake.
As to the point of the thread, I think NASA have achieved plenty of amazing things since the moon landings (real or fake). We have NASA to thank for various inventions however great or small, inventions which we use daily in some cases. I found this a while back just as a quick example;
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/uploads/infographics/full/11358.jpgAnd if NASA is to be believed, the Mars rovers are pretty impressve too. They don't get the same kind of publicity but they still do some great work IMO. In this day and age as well, I think it'd be pretty hard to fake things.