Setting aside the conspiracy theories...
The answer to the original question is that each stage must lift / accelerate itself and all of the upper stages. Plus of course the first and second stages had to do so against the Earth's gravity.
Start with the minimum returning payload and add stages that necessarily get exponentially larger. The energy potential of the fuel is the most important factor in how quickly the assemblage increases.
For the return journey - The ascent module just had to get itself, including 2 astronauts and rock samples etc off the surface of the Moon to rendezvous with the command module. The ascent module was discarded. The command module then just had to get out of lunar orbit and 'over the hump' to where the Earth's gravity was greater than the Moon's.
From there the command module accelerates under gravity back towards the Earth. It was on the return leg of the Apollo 10 mission that the human speed record was set and it still has not been surpassed.
Rather than carry extra fuel to decelerate at Earth, they used the atmosphere. This required thermal protection and extremely careful positioning but saved enormously on the required mass.
The whole plan, the engineering and the execution thereof were incredible feats. If nothing else, consider the process of taking accurate enough position and velocity readings in order to calculate the correct orientation and burn duration for each manoeuvre. There were opportunities for minor corrections here and there but the tolerances were extremely tight. Get something wrong by small fractions or omit a step and you're beyond recovery.
Truly magnificent.
The answer to the original question is that each stage must lift / accelerate itself and all of the upper stages. Plus of course the first and second stages had to do so against the Earth's gravity.
Start with the minimum returning payload and add stages that necessarily get exponentially larger. The energy potential of the fuel is the most important factor in how quickly the assemblage increases.
For the return journey - The ascent module just had to get itself, including 2 astronauts and rock samples etc off the surface of the Moon to rendezvous with the command module. The ascent module was discarded. The command module then just had to get out of lunar orbit and 'over the hump' to where the Earth's gravity was greater than the Moon's.
From there the command module accelerates under gravity back towards the Earth. It was on the return leg of the Apollo 10 mission that the human speed record was set and it still has not been surpassed.
Rather than carry extra fuel to decelerate at Earth, they used the atmosphere. This required thermal protection and extremely careful positioning but saved enormously on the required mass.
The whole plan, the engineering and the execution thereof were incredible feats. If nothing else, consider the process of taking accurate enough position and velocity readings in order to calculate the correct orientation and burn duration for each manoeuvre. There were opportunities for minor corrections here and there but the tolerances were extremely tight. Get something wrong by small fractions or omit a step and you're beyond recovery.
Truly magnificent.