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Why Did NASA Stop Going To The Moon?
Unveiled
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11/30/2024
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Fun
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00:00
Around 400,000 people worked on the Apollo program, NASA's flagship mid-20th century
00:06
mission to the moon.
00:08
Throughout its run, it cost the equivalent today of between $250 and $300 billion.
00:14
It took 12 astronauts to the lunar surface, but then it stopped after just three years.
00:20
What do you think happened, and why?
00:25
First, let's rewind.
00:27
Why did NASA even go to the moon in the first place?
00:29
Sure, it was an extraordinary achievement, but what exactly made people so desperate
00:34
to get there in the 60s, since we've seemingly forgotten all about it today?
00:38
One major motivator was the Cold War.
00:40
Across the 50s and 60s especially, the Cold War was fought between the US and the USSR
00:45
via technological one-upmanship in the arms race and the space race.
00:50
Nuclear weapons were getting more and more powerful, though the lack of any actual conflict
00:54
thankfully meant that none of them were being used.
00:57
So, both sides decided to use their rockets for something else… spaceflight.
01:02
And the Soviets took a sizable early lead in the space race.
01:06
In 1957, they launched the first-ever satellite into orbit, Sputnik, and later in the same
01:11
year, they sent the first animal into orbit, like the dog in Sputnik 2.
01:16
The Soviet probe Luna 2 became the first-ever craft to even reach the moon in 1959.
01:21
Then in 1961, the USSR sent the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin, and two years after
01:27
that the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova.
01:29
By contrast, America didn't send a woman into space until Sally Ride in 1983.
01:35
And back when the first two Sputniks were launched, the US didn't even have a space
01:39
program at all.
01:40
NASA wasn't formed until 1958 as a direct result of the Cold War.
01:45
So, after the Soviets quickly accomplished a heap of major milestones for space exploration,
01:50
it was then down to the USA to do something really impressive.
01:53
They didn't settle on the moon landing right away, though, briefly proposing an alternative
01:57
plan called Project A119, which was an alleged US Air Force scheme to detonate a nuclear
02:03
bomb on the moon.
02:04
Luckily, when NASA was formed, the powers that be decided to send people to the moon
02:08
instead of weapons, after wisely guessing that the public probably wouldn't appreciate
02:12
a nuke in the sky.
02:14
And so, the race was on, and the US were in catch-up mode, as the United States government
02:19
pumped as much money as possible into the Apollo program.
02:22
In 1966, NASA received its biggest-ever share of the US federal budget, 4.5%.
02:29
This was $5.9 billion back then, but around $43 billion today.
02:34
For perspective, NASA's 2019 kitty equals just less than 0.5% of the federal budget
02:39
at $21 billion.
02:41
So, they're now given less than half the money they once had.
02:45
In reality, the Apollo space program was ludicrously expensive, and critics of the
02:50
moon landing labelled it as just one big publicity stunt designed to triumph over the Soviet
02:54
Union.
02:55
Of course, it was also an incredible achievement for science and humanity, launching an interest
03:00
in space travel that remains today.
03:01
But, as soon as Apollo 11 actually won the space race, the government started looking
03:06
for any excuse to shelve it and save some money.
03:09
Overall, the Apollo space program that ended with Apollo 17 in 1972 cost around $150 billion
03:16
in today's money.
03:17
And while the space race effectively ended in 1969, the Cold War didn't, and the intentions
03:22
of the government turned elsewhere.
03:24
But NASA itself, created expressly to put a man on the moon, never totally lost interest
03:29
in one day returning to our closest neighbour.
03:31
It only lost the state funding to do so.
03:33
Nevertheless, with NASA seemingly slowing down their efforts, more and more other space
03:37
agencies turned their eye to the moon, instead.
03:41
Up until 1990, all prospective lunar missions were dominated by the Americans and the Soviets,
03:46
but then came the launch of the Hyten from ISAS, Japan's former space program.
03:51
After that, the number of moon missions planned by other countries grew and grew.
03:55
The current Japanese space program, JAXA, have continued to study the moon, as has the
03:59
European Space Agency, and also ISRO in India.
04:03
So, on an international scale, just because we're no longer sending people moonwards
04:07
doesn't mean we're not still studying it.
04:10
Probes and rovers are simply a much more cost-effective and comparatively risk-free option compared
04:14
to humans.
04:15
They don't need food, water or oxygen, and there's zero danger of illness, injury or
04:20
death.
04:21
One of the most significant current lunar leaders is the Chang'e 4 spacecraft, sent
04:25
by the CNSA, China's official space program.
04:28
The Chang'e 4 is our first craft to land on the fabled dark side of the moon.
04:32
For some, the move marks the start of a new space race, or new moon race, between China
04:37
and America.
04:38
Only this time, the US isn't playing catch-up.
04:41
For others, though, there's no longer a competition at all, and space travel has become
04:44
a much more collaborative process.
04:47
Because while the likes of China pushed the boundaries of what was previously possible,
04:51
NASA hasn't simply been twiddling its thumbs since 1972.
04:54
In fact, the agency reportedly does have plans to put people back on the moon by the late
04:59
2020s, and they did already launch a revitalized moon initiative, the Constellation Program,
05:04
in 2005… although this was subsequently cancelled in 2011, again due to cut government
05:10
spending.
05:11
What else has happened since the curtain came down on the Apollo missions?
05:14
Well, the International Space Station, for one.
05:16
A project again more focused on turning space exploration into a united effort, it's jointly
05:21
operated by five different space agencies from around the world.
05:25
Advocates for the ISS say it holds significantly more promise than another moon landing ever
05:29
could, given that it serves as an excellent resource to study the effects of actually
05:33
living and working in outer space.
05:35
Meanwhile, the moon is still a bleak and desolate prospect by comparison, meaning once again
05:40
that NASA's funds are more likely to be spent elsewhere.
05:43
But of course, it isn't only the ISS that NASA and the government prefers to spend its
05:47
money on.
05:48
There's also that other new and exciting prospect that so many have their sights geared
05:52
towards…
05:53
Mars.
05:54
The Mars race is still bubbling away, albeit at a much slower rate than the original space
05:58
race did, perhaps because there isn't a war to fuel it.
06:01
And NASA certainly has aims to go to Mars, having already sent various probes and rovers
06:05
to the red planet.
06:06
Earth's other state-funded agencies also seem bound for Mars, but what makes this race
06:11
seem different to any other is the power, influence and potential victory of private
06:15
companies.
06:16
Nowadays, NASA also contends with, or works with, the likes of Boeing, Virgin and SpaceX,
06:21
and the global focus has decidedly shifted away from the moon… which now, by comparison,
06:26
doesn't even seem so far away.
06:28
Today, there are other, even more distant dreams to be had, demanding even greater amounts
06:32
of time, expertise and money.
06:35
Finally, and despite all the indications that NASA has gone cold on the moon for other reasons,
06:40
there are some more outlandish theories out there.
06:42
There's the well-peddled conspiracy theory that the moon landings never happened in the
06:46
first place, and NASA just can't be bothered to fake elaborate lunar missions anymore.
06:50
There's the idea that humans haven't gone back to the moon for almost fifty years for
06:54
fear of aliens that supposedly reside there.
06:57
And there's the notion that the dark side of the moon actually houses a fleet of deadly
07:01
extraterrestrial spaceships, or that the moon itself is but a hollow spaceship primed to
07:06
launch.
07:07
They're all real theories but not exactly real science, and the likeliest truth simply
07:11
isn't quite so exciting.
07:13
Sending humans to the moon is an expensive business, and NASA doesn't have the financial
07:17
firepower it once did.
07:19
Throw into the mix an increasing demand to send explorers to another planet entirely,
07:23
and it becomes an even greater task for the agency to balance the books.
07:27
While renewed plans to send people and probes to explore the lunar surface prove that interest
07:31
in the moon hasn't gone away, unfortunately, the money has.
07:48
And that's why NASA stopped going to the moon.
07:51
What do you think?
07:52
Is there anything we missed?
07:53
Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
07:57
subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.
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