NASA: "We're really going to Mars. It won't be staged. Honest."

For over 50 years, NASA has had to fight the rumors that the moon landings were faked. Again and again NASA has provided proof that the landings were not a hoax, but skeptics remain. "It's frustrating that some people still believe that NASA didn't land astronauts on the moon," said Dr. Luna Fausse, spokesperson for NASA. "Because we definitely did and we're definitely going to put astronauts on the surface of Mars."

Dr. Fausse said that teams of dedicated scientists and engineers are hard at work on the Mars mission just as they once were on the Moon missions. "Back then, some people believed that going to the moon was impossible," said Dr. Fausse. "They thought that there was no way that we could transport three people hundreds of thousands of miles through the coldness of space, land two of them on the moon, and then return them home safely. They assumed that it was more plausible that we just faked everything from a secret soundstage. How ludicrous!"

"Of course, the Apollo program happened before the Internet existed. It would have been pretty easy to fool people," continued Dr. Fausse. "I mean the public would have just watched it once on TV (they couldn't record shows in those days) and never see it again. So like 99% of people would have believed it. Not that we actually tried to fool anyone. We really did go to the moon, of course. Really"

NASA has said they plan to put astronauts on Mars by the end of the decade. Dr. Fausse believes that this is an ambitious, but attainable goal. "By the year 2030 we should have made significant advances in rocket performance and spaceship design. In that time, there will probably be great improvements in digital imagery, too. So if we were to fake a Mars landing, not that we would, it would be impossible for anyone to tell. Everyone would believe people were on mars when really it would just be computer generated video some guys create in NASA's basement. But don't worry. We have no plans to do anything like that. All that video editing equipment we installed in the basement is for some other project, and not to create fake Mars landing images."

Dr. Fausse, whose degree from USC is in film production, says that the most important mission at NASA is science. "Here at NASA, we are explorers who want to learn as much about space as possible and pass that knowledge to the world," said Dr. Fausse. "We do this better than anyone on the planet, and if we wanted to fake some lunar landing, or Mars landings, we would be the best at that, too. But there's no need to worry. We're not faking anything. I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die."