Why have we not been back to the moon since 1969?

Question

That equates to 37 years of scientific advancement and breakthroughs, yet no body has been there since.

Why not?

Answer 1

Well since 1969 there have been 8 manned lunar landings (Apollo 14-17) and 1 mission aborted. (Apollo 13) Since 1972 however, the United States Russia and other countries have sent several robotic probes to study the moon.

Although there have been no manned missions to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, there have been a number of unmanned probes. Most of these probes have been from the US and Russia, 1 was launched from the European Space Agency and 1 from Japan.

The last probe to the moon was Smart 1 from the ESA. It was launched just this year and ended its mission a few months ago by crashing into the surface.

There have been at least 10 probes from a number of countries sending probes to the moon. And each 1 of these probes has returned valuble information about the lunar surface. Although they havnt been manned it doesnt change the fact that humans are trying to learn as much as they can from the moon. I dont think it makes any difference that these probes are not manned. Learning and discovery are the same thing no matter how it is done.

What it comes down to is safety and cost. If humans can learn about the surface of the moon through unmanned probes then they can do. Theres no point in sending humans back to the moon just for the sake of it. There needs to be a stated goal in mind. Humans will definately go back to the moon, and this time I think it will be for good.

NASA and other countries knew that a manned space would be needed and should be the number 1 priority. I dont think they wanted to start building the station and then all of a sudden say hang on lets go back to the moon. They couldnt have done both at once. They need the space station as a stepping stone to head further into the universe.

Answer 2

What people seem to conveniently forget is that when the Apollo program was devised, there was a schedule right up to Apollo 20. Then there was the Apollo 1 disaster, and it took until Apollo 7 for the first manned Apollo flight. It was purely an Earth orbital flight. Apollo 8 took three astronauts to orbit the moon and return to Earth. Apollo 9 tested the Lunar Module (LM) for the first time, but only in Earth orbit and then Apollo 10 tested the LM in lunar orbit. Apollo 11 took the first astronauts to land on the moon and return. Apollo 12 followed shortly afterwards in 1969. Then there was the setback of Apollo 13, which delayed Apollo 14 for some time until NASA fully understood what had gone wrong on Apollo 13. The samples from Apollo 11 and 12 were not as interesting as had been hoped (no green cheese!), but different landing sites were chosen for Apollos 14, 15, 16 and 17. Also in the later missions, the "moon buggy" was tested. NASA realised that "single use" vehicles were enormously expensive and so the focus shifted to reusable craft, and so was born the Space Shuttle. It was never designed to go to the moon, but rather to launch satellites cheaply and establish a space station. Even back in the early 1970's there was a plan to return to the moon eventually.

Just a bit of context for those who did not live through the 1960s and 1970s.

Answer 3

Actually, the last moon landing was several years later [Apollo 17], but that does not detract from the sense of your question. The short answer is that it costs too much with respect to the value of the knowledge gained. There is talk of a lunar station at the south pole, to be used as a staging area for trips to Mars and perhaps elsewhere. but that is a ways off. NASA will need to develop a new space vehicle to do that, and work on that has hardly started.

Answer 4

When we first when to the Moon, despite the goal of advancing science and space exploration, the ultimate goal at the time was to beat the Russians in terms of technological advancements and international prestige.

After this goal was achieved, and the public interest waned, less funding was devoted to the program and manned Moon exploration quickly faded away.

Answer 5

well there is no motivation to go to the moon is there?.during the cold war the main objective was to stay ahead of the russians.After that was achieved the gov & the public simply lost interest
anyway the cost of moon travel ins unsustainable.
But now the chinees are plannig a moon landing & NASA also announced plans for a lunar base.

Answer 6

No real economic motivation to do so beyond helping to develop technologies that would only return on the investment so far after it was made that administrations did not see the point in funding them.

If something takes longer than the time between elections to bear fruit, the government is not likely (without significant external pressure) to bother funding it. Private companies also want to see returns on their investments sooner than they would funding space exploration in any more than a token way.

Answer 7

Good question! You would think we would be going there every week by now. Man always goes forward in exploring. The hard bit is getting into orbit, so they do that all the time now to the ISS. So why not float frictionless to the moon??? All the hard and expensive work has been done to get into orbit.

Answer 8

we have been to the moon four times since 1969

why we havent been since 1973, because the US has become very corrupt and stupid, we need to clean this place up

Answer 9

Economics, politics, and a progressively disminishing intellectual curiosity.

Answer 10

WE HAVE BUT I SEE YOUR POINT.

EXPENSIVE 1 TRILLION MAYBE 500 BILLION
Really really dangerous and since we did it to prove a point.

BUT WE ARE BUILDING A BASE THERE on or before 2024.

ENJOY