Assuming the Americans had technological dominance to go there repeatedly and discovered no resources…they would not stop due to cost. Go look at NASA’s annual budget today. They get that much to make fuzzy pictures of stars and develop aerospace tech.
At a minimum, the strategic advantage in having a moon base before anyone could touch it would go lightyears beyond what any budget would justify. America could have build a remote surveillance base, a missile launch site or simply expanded it’s territory. Imagine a M.A.D. scenario, the moon base would be untouchable and provide the last territory to fight back. No one would ever attack the united states in that case.
You have no idea how big the expenses were on the Apollo program...when the dollar was worth 10 times more than it is now. Nothing political happens without costs, and the Apollo program had outrun its popular support. The budgets responded accordingly and shifted to low-Earth-orbit missions.
There is no strategic advantage to having a Moon base, science fiction stories to the contrary. Takes too much time to go to and from. Better surveillance at close range. Easier missile launch from Earth surface (and faster). Any Moon base would be easy to snuff out (just nuke it directly, or nuke the logistical launch centers on Earth).
We went there, repeatedly. It is now a question to see whether NASA or SpaceX is first to return.
Since we’ve had aspirations of going to Mars for almost as long as we wanted to go to the moon, one would think we would want to put a base on the moon so that we could research what’s needed to get to Mara. But, alas, we’ve never gone back since the 60’s. 🤷♂️
Which is one of the (good) reasons for the effort to return. The Moon is a good environment to put colonization technology to the test, before entrusting a Mars base with it. At least if there is a catastrophe on the Moon, the trip home is only a few days. If there is a catastrophe on Mars, very bad scenario.
I tend to think that the perils of a long voyage are underrated, however. Too much glib thinking. It's more like a trip to Antarctica by sailing ship in terms of isolation and beyond human reach.
No. The astronauts were moving in real speed as was everything else, but objects dropped more slowly. Fine grit tossed up by the Moonbuggy's wheels did not form a dust cloud. It all dropped like sand.
We did.
We stopped after Apollo 17.
Because there's nothing there.
We had to beat the Russians for bragging rights.
We did.
Nothing of value up there.
Waste of money to go again.
Assuming the Americans had technological dominance to go there repeatedly and discovered no resources…they would not stop due to cost. Go look at NASA’s annual budget today. They get that much to make fuzzy pictures of stars and develop aerospace tech.
At a minimum, the strategic advantage in having a moon base before anyone could touch it would go lightyears beyond what any budget would justify. America could have build a remote surveillance base, a missile launch site or simply expanded it’s territory. Imagine a M.A.D. scenario, the moon base would be untouchable and provide the last territory to fight back. No one would ever attack the united states in that case.
We never went there…
Edit: banned for this comment
You have no idea how big the expenses were on the Apollo program...when the dollar was worth 10 times more than it is now. Nothing political happens without costs, and the Apollo program had outrun its popular support. The budgets responded accordingly and shifted to low-Earth-orbit missions.
There is no strategic advantage to having a Moon base, science fiction stories to the contrary. Takes too much time to go to and from. Better surveillance at close range. Easier missile launch from Earth surface (and faster). Any Moon base would be easy to snuff out (just nuke it directly, or nuke the logistical launch centers on Earth).
We went there, repeatedly. It is now a question to see whether NASA or SpaceX is first to return.
Since we’ve had aspirations of going to Mars for almost as long as we wanted to go to the moon, one would think we would want to put a base on the moon so that we could research what’s needed to get to Mara. But, alas, we’ve never gone back since the 60’s. 🤷♂️
EDIT: Wow, banned for this comment.
Which is one of the (good) reasons for the effort to return. The Moon is a good environment to put colonization technology to the test, before entrusting a Mars base with it. At least if there is a catastrophe on the Moon, the trip home is only a few days. If there is a catastrophe on Mars, very bad scenario.
I tend to think that the perils of a long voyage are underrated, however. Too much glib thinking. It's more like a trip to Antarctica by sailing ship in terms of isolation and beyond human reach.
For argument's sake, the US could beat the Russians for bragging rights much more cheaply and safely by pretending to go the moon.
Why didn't the Soviets call us out on it?
I don't think it suited them to do so. I think there was benefit to both sides in not exposing the US
Russia is doing so now!
The video from the Moon included physical effects that could only have occurred on the Moon (vacuum and low gravity). Learn more, fantasize less.
Do you mean that the footage looked slowed down?
No. The astronauts were moving in real speed as was everything else, but objects dropped more slowly. Fine grit tossed up by the Moonbuggy's wheels did not form a dust cloud. It all dropped like sand.
Correct. The popular enthusiasm had waned and President Nixon had other fish to fry, so he diverted the funding to development of the Space Shuttle.