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Going to the moon has long been a goal of mankind
Going to the moon has long been a goal of mankind. Such an impressive feat that we’ve done it several times. In the 1970s, people probably talked about future moon tourism. But what they probably wouldn’t have thought was that the last time a man would set foot on the moon would be in 1972.
However, the sending of 12 men to the moon by NASA remains one of the greatest achievements of the space agency, if not of humanity as a whole, Unilad writes.
But that begs the question, why did we stop going back there?
There are still plenty of reasons to return to the dusty rock in the sky, and NASA has said it plans to send American astronauts back to the moon around the end of 2026.
Photo: Getty Images/Gulliver Photos
Astronaut Jim Bridenstine, who ran NASA during the Donald Trump administration, explained that it was not scientific or technological limitations that stopped the US from traveling to the moon after 1972. Speaking to reporters, he said: “If it wasn’t for the political risk, we would we are on the moon right now. “Political risks prevented that from happening. The program took too long and cost too much money.”
And this can often come down to a mix of politics and economics.
NASA’s budget for 2023 is $25.4 billion, and the Biden administration is asking Congress to increase it to $27.2 billion for 2024. That may sound like a lot, but the total is spread across all departments and ambitious projects of the agency. By comparison, the US defense budget for 2023 is about $858 billion.
Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham talks about the difficulties of getting more money from the government to send more people to the moon. “Manned exploration is the most expensive space endeavor and, therefore, the most difficult to obtain political support. “NASA’s budget is too low to do all the things we’re talking about,” he says.
