Looking Back At Apollo 17, and Why We Stopped Going To the Moon (examiner.com)

MarkWhittington writes: The 43rd anniversary of the mission of Apollo 17, the last time men walked on the moon, has elicited a strange kind of nostalgia, and no little melancholia in some parts of the media. These qualities are captured in a story in IO9 that purports to tell us why no one has been back to the moon in over four decades and why we might soon return at last. Deadline Hollywood informs us that "The Last Man on the Moon," a documentary on Apollo moonwalker Gene Cernan, is set for a release to both theaters and video on demand in February, having been shown at film festivals for the past year or so,

Comments

Re:TL;DR

[alvinrod]

We stopped going to the moon because we beat the Soviet Union and they eventually collapsed. The space race was a dick waving contest with the possibility of learning how to put weapons in orbit.

The only reason the U.S. goes back to the moon will be because China wants to try doing it. Otherwise a moon landing is in the hands of the rich entrepreneurs who are holding their own private dick waving contests.

Re:economics

[argStyopa]

I'd actually disagree.

There is a tangible benefit as substantial as having a coaling station on the coast of Africa was in the 19th century, or having an unsinkable aircraft carrier called Hawaii or Diego Garcia today: the poles.

There are precisely 2 points on the moon that have (basically) uninterrupted line-of-sight to earth AND line of sight to the sun (ie power). Whoever gets there, and plants at least a basic base there, has a de-facto ownership based on occupancy.

Short of ejecting them by violence, that's forever. That's pretty important.

Re:There was little to be gained by continuing to

[skam240]

I've never seen any evidence that the same left wing groups who opposed nuclear power opposed landing people on the moon. Those two issues seem very unrelated to me in fact.

Meanwhile, fiscal conservatism has always been the reason for NASA budget cuts in my experience. With a shrinking budget should NASA have kept landing people on the moon or invested its limited resources in other less understood aspects of our universe?