Back in December of ’72, the Apollo 17 mission took place, which was the final mission of NASA’s Apollo program. More than 45 years have passed since that moment in time and most of us have wondered at least once why astronauts have not been sent again to the moon.
There are many reasons to send people to Earth’s satellite again
According to researchers, a base with a crew on the moon could easily develop into a fuel storage for missions into the deep space and it could also allow for the construction of extremely advanced space telescopes. This would definitely mean that the possibility of living on Mars would become more achievable, and mysteries about our planet and the creation of the moon could be solved. Additionally, lunar space tourism could become something of interest. So why is it that a permanent station that would allow research on the moon has not been created yet?
The possible costs of a mission to the moon play an important role
Based on what have been stated so far by both astronauts and experts, it might be just too expensive to create a new crewed moon mission. According to a law that was signed by Donald Trump last year in March, NASA gets an annual budget of only 19.5 billion dollars. To someone who doesn’t know what the cost of a mission to the moon would imply, this amount might sound like a bonanza, but taking into consideration all scientific projects that NASA has to spend money on, this sum of money sounds more like a joke.
Let’s not even try to compare this money to how much the U.S. military is getting every year, which is an astonishing 600 billion dollars. What’s more, the portion that NASA got for the past 40 years from the federal budget stayed below 1%, which decreased to 0.4% for the last 15 years, compared to 4% in 1965.
So it looks like the reason why no astronauts have been sent to the moon once more is quite simple and sad: not enough funding.
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.