Editing Moon landing conspiracy theories (section)

=== Number of conspirators involved ===
According to [[James Longuski]], the conspiracy theories are impossible because of their size and complexity. The conspiracy would have to involve more than 400,000 people who worked on the Apollo project for nearly ten years, the twelve men who walked on the Moon, the six others who flew with them as [[Apollo command and service module|command module]] pilots, and another six astronauts who orbited the Moon.{{efn|This number includes the crews of Apollos 8, [[Apollo 10|10]], and [[Apollo 13|13]], though the last technically only performed a fly-by. These three missions account for only six additional astronauts because James Lovell orbited the Moon twice (Apollos 8 and 13), while John Young and Gene Cernan orbited on Apollo 10, and both later landed on the Moon.}} Hundreds of thousands of people would have had to keep the secret, including astronauts, scientists, engineers, technicians, and skilled laborers. Longuski argues that it would have been much easier to really land on the Moon than to generate such a huge conspiracy to fake the landings.<ref>[[#Longuski|Longuski 2006]], p. 102</ref><ref>[[#Aaronovitch|Aaronovitch 2010]], pp. 1–2, 6</ref> To date, nobody from the United States government or NASA linked to the Apollo program has said that the Moon landings were hoaxes. [[Penn Jillette]] made note of this in the "Conspiracy Theories" episode of his television show ''[[Penn & Teller: Bullshit!]]'' in 2005.<ref name="bullshit">{{cite episode |title=Conspiracy Theories |series=[[Penn & Teller: Bullshit!]] |network=[[Showtime (TV channel)|Showtime]] |air-date=May 9, 2005 |season=3 |number=3}}</ref> Physicist [[David Robert Grimes]] estimated the time that it would take for a conspiracy to be exposed based on the number of people involved.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Barajas |first1=Joshua |date=15 February 2016 |title=How many people does it take to keep a conspiracy alive? |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/math-formula-charts-the-lifespan-of-hoaxes/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013022744/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/math-formula-charts-the-lifespan-of-hoaxes/ |archive-date=13 October 2017 |access-date=22 July 2016 |website=PBS NEWSHOUR |publisher=Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grimes |first1=David R |author-link1=David Robert Grimes |date=26 January 2016 |title=On the Viability of Conspiratorial Beliefs |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=e0147905 |bibcode=2016PLoSO..1147905G |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0147905 |pmc=4728076 |pmid=26812482 |doi-access=free|issn=1932-6203}}</ref> His calculations used data from the [[PRISM (surveillance program)|PRISM surveillance program]], the [[Tuskegee syphilis experiment]], and the [[FBI Laboratory#21st century controversies|FBI forensic scandal]]. Grimes estimated that a Moon landing hoax would require the involvement of 411,000 people and would be exposed within 3.68 years. His study did not consider exposure by sources outside of the alleged conspiracy; it only considered exposure from within through whistleblowers or incompetence.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Steven |last1=Novella |first2=Bob |last2=Novella |first3=Cara |last3=Santa Maria |first4=Jay |last4=Novella |first5=Evan |last5=Bernstein |title=The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake |publisher=Grand Central Publishing |year=2018 |pages=209–210 |isbn=978-1538760536}}</ref>