Why haven't humans returned to the Moon?

The financial difficulty as well as the lack of specific purpose are the reasons why people do not return to the moon even though the technological level has gone far beyond the 70s.

On July 21, 1969, astronaut Neil Amstrong from the Apollo 11 spacecraft set his first steps on the moon, opening up the era of human space conquest. He and Buzz Aldrin are the first people in the world to set foot on the "moon".

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin stood next to the flag of the United States on the moon, near the landing position of Lunar during Apollo 11. (Photo: NASA)

On December 7, 1972, Apollo 17 spacecraft carrying three astronauts Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt were the last to set foot on the moon. This is also the flight that ended the American Apollo program. Today's aerospace technology is much more modern than 43 years ago, so why is no other country besides the United States bringing people to the moon?

Financial barriers

Finance is one of the biggest barriers to every nation's attempt to conquer space. According to the report that the US Aeronautics Agency (NASA) submitted to Congress in 1973, the total cost of the Apollo program lasted from the early 1960s to the end of 1972 to 25.4 billion USD. ( converted at the exchange rate in 2005 of 170 billion USD).

Thus, averaging 17 flights of Apollo chapter at the exchange rate in 2005 amounted to 10 billion USD for each launch. The amount of money for each Apollo ship to space amounted to 9.01 billion USD - higher than Uganda's GDP in 2005, according to the World Bank data.

Even for a country with the world's number-one economy, the US must end the program to conquer the moon because of the huge cost. Although the aerospace technology has advanced significantly, finance continues to be a great challenge for people to return to the moon.

Lack of clear purpose

The Apollo program was an attempt to assert American power over the Soviet Union during the Cold War.(Photos: Wikipedia)

It is no coincidence that Washington spends a large sum of money on the Apollo program. The United States implemented the space conquest program during the period of the bitter Cold War between the two superpowers America and the Soviet Union. In October 1957, Moscow successfully launched humanity's first artificial satellite into space.

According to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), this event created a panic in the United States. Military Washington found that the missile that brought Sputnik satellite into orbit could carry nuclear warheads anywhere in the world.

The Washington government decided to invest heavily in the space program to outpace the Soviet Union, thereby asserting the world's No. 1 technology power of the United States. But when Neil Armstrong stepped into the Moon , Americans realized that the program costing tens of billions of dollars did not help Washington in creating an overwhelming advantage over the Soviet Union, since Moscow developed a space program. their other direction.

After the success of Apollo 11, missions to conquer the Moon became boring because it did not bring any concrete benefits to the United States. In 1972, President Richard Nixon decided to end the Apollo program because it was no longer needed.

In fact, the Apollo program offers many scientific benefits as well as a breakthrough in electronic technology in aerospace applications. The achievements of the program have been widely applied in the world aerospace industry.

Therefore, it is no longer necessary for a certain country to set foot on the Moon to study science or to claim strength, because they can re-apply technological achievements from the Apollo project. On the other hand, the world context has changed a lot, the Cold War ended, the technology race between the two superpowers no longer exists.

Besides, aerospace technology has made great strides, people want to conquer remote areas of the universe rather than bring people back to the Moon.

The landing on the Moon in 1969.

Accident

In addition, accidents are also a barrier with the effort to return to the Moon. People have mastered the technology to conquer aerospace, but the accident is still an obsession every time the rocket launches into orbit.

According to the AP, the first test of the Apollo 1 spacecraft on January 27, 1967 occurred disaster that killed all three astronauts. Or the shuttle Challenger disaster in January 1986 made 7 crew members die to become an obsession with the attempt to conquer human space.

By 2003, the space shuttle Columbia exploded when it returned to the atmosphere, killing seven people. The most recent accident took place on June 28, the unmanned space shuttle Dragon and Falcon 9 boosters exploded only minutes after leaving the launch pad.

The means to conquer space such as spacecraft, boosters require very high manufacturing processes and technical standards, just a small mistake can lead to loss of life and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. .