Why did we go to the moon?

Question

It's just full of rocks and dust! The astronauts just spent a few hours each time walking around collecting rocks. They could have done that on Earth! It cost millions and millions of dollars. How many schools and hospitals could have been built and lives saved with that level of public money? What a pointless, meaningless waste of time and money!

Answer 1

because ordinary rocks just wern't good enough for snobby americans so they had to go get some thats were suitable for there over inflated ego's

Answer 2

moon exploration is the second step into space exploration
the first step was to enter space

yes its true that we could've spent that money on improving life on earth, but space exploration is extremely important to our nature as human beings. we are always seeking knowledge and explanations for everything...part of which comes the ultimate questions...why are we here? could there be life elsewhere in the universe? if so....could it disprove God? what is the meaning of life?...etc.
Another reason why we feel the need to explore space is the same as the reason why Europeans came to explore North America. Overpopulation, expansion, colonization, economy, resource...It's clearly evident that we are eating up the Earth, draining its oil reserves, chopping down trees, destroying natural habitats for animals, polluting, and populating.

There's no doubt that the human to nature ratio was far less 200 years ago than it is today. So what happens 500 years from now? What will the population be? If the earth is only capable of holding...lets say 20 billion people...where will the others go if we exceed that limit? So obviously, the answer is somewhere in space....if Mars proves to be habitable, then that's where we'll go. But now the debate over these issues is not whether such things will happen or not, but why should we care? When overpopulation occurs everyone on earth at this moment in time will be dead. So it's not our problem....its our great great great great grandkid's problem.
There is no doubt that we will destroy the earth in a matter of centuries so it comes down to are u going to be selfish and just care about ur life in ur time? or do u want to try and continue on the human race by protecting our environment so we can live on earth longer while the space research teams find out ways for us humans to continue existing by exploring and colonizing on other planets

Answer 3

If it did actually happen. Yes it was about Politics and Super Powers, And the Arms Race.

Nothing more nothing less.

Once the USA " got to the moon" all interest was lost, And NASA has struggled since for funding, hence no real advancement on manned space travel since

The ESA station is a joke, a pointless operation unless its use is worthy of military use.

Mir..... Now here one...

Wasn't that prophetic,, but slightly off question/

mm was it Mir or Man.. ( ;-)


Manned Space flight cannot seriously happen on this planet until all nations are at Peace.

And when all differences have been put aside, so that the human species, can step over the thin blue line. And evolve.

Answer 4

Because it is there, just like why have so many people climbed Mt. Everest, or some tried swimming the English Channel, or Charles Linberg flew across the Atlantic Ocean non-stop, or that woman tried to fly around the world, etc., etc., etc.. It's a challenge that HAS to be taken in order to "better" ourselves. You may not know the specific reason, but that doesn't lessen the value of the challenge, or the benefits gathered from them. God Bless you.

Answer 5

In May, 1961, President Kennedy set the national goal of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the earth" before the end of the decade. He recognized that at that time, one of the key measures of international leadership was a country's accomplishments in space.

Also, militarily, the world was dividing into two camps: NATO and the Warsaw Pact. In order to recruit as many countries to NATO's side, President Kennedy knew we had to demonstrate a clearly leading role in outer space.

That in-a-nut-shell is why we went to the Moon.

Answer 6

Because human kind has an unquenchable thirst to understand what it doesnt know, you could ask the same questions about many things on earth. Why spend billions of dollars of cures for illnesses, do you know how many attemps and how much money is spent on finding one cure for a disease? Why do we do it? to further understand everything around us as well as find a way to dominate and control everything about our surroundings. Right now, space is considered the last frontier, such as the case of the ocean some 500-600 years ago

Answer 7

Should Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan have stayed in Spain?

Should the mayflower have stayed in Britain?

We would have a colony on the moon by now had we not stopped going in the ‘70

We might have already been to mars as well

There will eventually be a time that we are forced to leave this planet do to overpopulation and other reasons.

Do you want to be caught with your pants down?

..

Answer 8

To debunk the old wives tale about it being made of green cheese. And to claim it before the Russians made it communist and off limits. And to see if we might someday have vacations there. The moon rover, lunar lander's base, our flag, and probably a bag of trash is still there. Oh, and 1 golf ball, a feather and a brick. The feather and brick were dropped to see if they would land at the same time. They did.

Answer 9

Not really waster. There was a lot of collateral stuff that was developed. and that you use today. A lot of plastics were developed. Also, the technology of the bionic limbs was one by product. Yea, we wanted to beat the Russians, true. But we did get a lot of stuff developed that otherwise we might not have. So you can look at it both ways.

Man is always reaching out trying to improve stuff whether others like it or not. Look at air travel.

Answer 10

The driving force that made the moon landing possible is President John F. Kennedy. He promised the American people that the U.S. would put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960's. After his assassination in 1963 it was even more important to land on the moon. The Russians didn't help by any means. Many people believe that we never even landed on the moon.