Yes, it is most certainly fake. I can't give an calculated estimate of what WOULD be required to make it work but I can give this example. The Apollo crews left retroreflectors on the moon. This is a bank of maybe 16 corner cubes in an array. To measure the distance to the moon, we aim a powerful laser backwards into a telescope and beam it to the moon. After 5 seconds some of the light returns and is picked up by a sensor. I believe I read somewhere that something like 50 photons makes it back.

To think that we could aim a laser at the moon, and have it reflect off of jet black regolith and then be visible to the human eye is a bit of a stretch.

I would hazard a wild guess that it would require all of the electricity produced on earth to make a spot on the moon that is visible to the human eye.

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Bill Slugg
Albany, GA