Of course not, but the concept certainly did sell a lot of books for the authors of this loony idea. Sadly, it also got a lot of people, including a disturbingly large number of teachers and students, worked up about ideas that they simply didn't have the science background to sort out properly. This idea began in 2001 with a TV program called "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?" that was aired on February 15th, and again on March 21st. The program interviewed 'experts' who strongly believed that NASA never had the technology to make it to the Moon, but were under political pressure to make us look better than the Soviets at any cost. The issues raised, however, were very deceptive and gave ammunition to people who don't trust scientists, and who think that all phenomena should have an obvious intuitive explanation. Some of my favorite questions have to do with the American flag continuing to wave for a long period of time, the lack of a major crater under the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), and the seemingly anomalous shadows. You get anomalous shadows because Earth is a very bright source of light at a different angle than the Sun. The American flag continues to wave because of the violence with which it was slammed into the surface and the frictionless environment. There is no atmosphere on the Moon to damp the motion quickly. Finally, the large rocket nozzle of the engine distributed the thrust of the rocket exhaust over a huge area. This results in just enough momentum change to slow down the LEM, but hardly enough pressure at the ground to move much of the lunar surface around - even the dust.
