It’s been forty years since man first walked on the moon. As you might expect, the internet is full of information on the Apollo missions. Here’s a brief guide to just a few of the sites worth visiting.

Buzz Aldrin walks by the footpad of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module. (AP/Photo, NASA, file)

Perhaps the obvious place to start looking at the moon landings is on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) website. http://www.nasa.gov/home/#

As you might expect, there is a wealth of material here, from pictures to restored videos to audio recordings. My particular favourite feature is an interactive map of the landing site which allows the visitor to explore in the footsteps of Armstrong and Aldrin.

There are also pictures of the Apollo landing sites taken from above the moon by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter – although the images are so indistinct you have to take the accompanying text on trust.

It’s also interesting to scroll through some of the comments on the site. Ever since the moon landings NASA has been plagued by conspiracy theorists claiming the whole thing was knocked up in a TV studio. The website doesn’t edit these comments, and it’s interesting to see the cynics (“We never went to the moon,” being a does-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin entry) right next to those who are still inspired by the achievement: “We did what we said we did”, being a typical example.

Anyone with even the slightest interest in space will find much to enjoy at the NASA website. It’s packed with information on current projects and missions, satellite images, our solar system and the history of the space programme. As websites go, this is extraordinarily impressive.

There’s a bit more detail on the landing sites on the Los Angeles Times website, including a nice graphic showing just how big the Saturn 5 rockets were. For more, click here.

To find out what the astronauts themselves think about their achievement, why not turn to Buzzaldrin.com, the great man’s official website.

Here you can learn more about the Aldrin and his missions, see pictures from his career and learn more about his plea for further space exploration.

You can also download his song “Rocket Experience”, a collaboration with rapper Snoop Dogg, and buy memorabilia including watches, models and – for some reason – a Buzz Aldrin shortwave radio. Those with a bit more cash to spare may be interested in buying autographed photographs at $350 a throw. These days it seems even genuine heroes have to make a living.

You can find all sorts of moon pictures on the internet, although some, I would suggest, appear to be fakes. Have a look at this one on the photo sharing site flikr

Speaking of fakes, there are hundreds of websites trying to debunk the missions and prove that the moon landings never happened. A prime example is called – funnily enough – “The Faked Apollo Landings” and it offers a blow-by-blow, shot by shot attempt to prove that millions of dollars and thousands of people were involved in the biggest hoax ever.

The conspiracy sites are certainly interesting, but so are those that take the ‘faked’ argument and pull it apart. The Daily Telegraph has a good layman’s attempt at this, but for a more exhaustive approach visit Badastronomy.com, where author Phil Plait not so much dismisses the conspiracies but drives a bus over them. And then he reverses it and has another go.

Finally, if you want to know what the Apollo astronauts make of the conspiracy theorists, watch this clip on YouTube. I doubt anyone ever questioned Buzz Aldrin’s honesty again. Well played, sir.

By Andrew Owen