Sunday, June 25, 2023

"Fake" photo of InSight is a strawman

 I've seen flat-earthers more than once post a photo of the InSight Mars lander on which the shadows are inconsistent with the position of the Sun.  Here's the most recent one.  It's also the pinned tweet of @Eric_Dubay_FE It even has a URL at NASA.


But did NASA claim that this photo was taken on Mars?  Whenever there's no full link, we should be suspicious.  Before defending something, find its source.  Search engines can help, and in this case Google search by image found this on the cover of the NASA InSight Launch Press Kit


Notice the date at the bottom, May 2018.  That's the month that the lander launched.  Obviously the photo wasn't taken on Mars, where the mission wouldn't land until November of that year.

And here's another version of that image, clearly labeled as Artist's Concept of InSight Lander on Mars from 2017