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.
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.