Another question raised about the Lunar landings by the doubters regards the fact that the powerful descent engine on the Lunar Module did apparently not produce a crater during the landings.

Some people have quoted the rating of the descent engine as 30,000 lbs, equivalent to the power of a Lear jet

If you look at the information in the Apollo press packs you will find the following facts

1. The weight of the lunar module on the Earth was just over 35,000 lbs, on the Moon this would be reduced to 6,000 lbs because of the one sixth gravity

2. The Lunar module decent engine had a MAXIMUM rating of 10,000 lbs but was throttle-able between 1,050 lb up to 6,300 lb, see Apollo 11 - The NASA Mission Reports Volume 1 page 62

3. Many of the Lunar module crews talk about seeing dust being blasted sideways across the surface

As you can see there is some discrepancy between the NASA reports and the doubters. I'm not surprised! In my opinion the blast from the Lunar module removed the top few centimetres of dust but was not strong enough to dig a crater. If you look at the photograph at the foot of Buzz Aldrin by the LM foot pad page were you can see evidence of the surface erosion caused by the blast from the decent engine.