Why doesn't NASA go to the moon anymore?

Question

One would think that with the aeronautical technological improvements spanning the last few decades that surely NASA would have gone again by now...

Please don't be smart and say something like, 'because they never did in the first place'.

Answer 1

question is why did they want to go to the moon so badly in the first place? -_-

now that the race is over, maybe everyone realized how stupid of a competition it was

Answer 2

Very simple: lack of money. Congress cut NASA's funding after the sixth lunar landing in 1972 because the public seemed to have lost interest in the Moon and the "space race" with the Soviet Union had been won. It was tragically bad timing, because Apollo 17 in 1972 was the _first_ Apollo voyage to have a trained scientist, Harrison Schmitt, on board, and was supposed to be the first of three scientific expeditions.

More was learned about the Moon and its history in that voyage than in the previous 5 put together, and much more would have been learned if the two next voyages had been funded. Instead the US space program was redirected into the boondoggle of the shuttle and space station programs, neither of which has made much contribution to science.

Answer 3

Because there wasn't any false intelligence saying that the Moon had weapons of mass destruction.

Answer 4

Fundamentally because we the people have not directed NASA to go back until very recently.

Yes, the last few decades have seen a lot of advancement in various areas of technology, but aerospace technology isn't just a general, all-encompassing thing.  You develop technology and techniques specific to the things you're planning to do, and if those things don't include landing people on the Moon then those specific skills aren't developed or retained.  Since 1972 we haven't been focused on the goal of putting people on the Moon, so that technology path has become fallow.

Answer 5

After the glamor of the "space race" had worn off, political support waned & the funding for continuing the Apollo program dried up.

Also, the Apollo program, for all it's success, was an extremely dangerous program.  That only three astronauts died (on the ground, Apollo 1) & only one of the missions failed in flight (Apollo 13) is a bit of a miracle.

Once govt funding ended, there wasn't enough profit potential for the private sector to take up the slack.

Most of the Nasa funds since were squandered on the Shuttle program (which was the only surviving part of a very ambitions Mars program) & later, on the International Space Station.

However, the advances made in materials science & aeronautics, as well as the fact that the technology has become far less expensive has caused some entrepreneurs to take steps toward privatizing space exploration.

Answer 6

1.  It's a cold rock.  Aside from setting up colonies there's nothing of interest aside from the going.

2.  They ran out of Saturn V rockets, the mechanism necessary to go to the moon.  They only had so many (a dozen or so), and now there being replaced by a more efficient rocket (Ares V).  The issue is that ever since they built the shuttle, they've been reluctant to go back to the pod launchers.  But getting something the size of the shuttle to the moon takes a lot more energy.  That's something the Ares V is looking to resolve though.

It's really all about the money.  While going to the moon would be great, the dough would be better spent on Mars missions and telescope fundings.   The original rockets were developed and constructed by private companies (Boeing and IBM among them).  In order to get more, NASA would have to order more.  And at the cost, they'd need very good reason why.

Answer 7

Because a independent space explorer kid caught them on the moon with frog clone paraphneillia and brought back shoved it in Nasa face as if they wouldnt be caught for human genocide and a new frog race so they threw money on the black to burden the rest of us until they can attempt it again.

Answer 8

December 1972 was the last time a human walked on the moon.

NASA has sent robotic (unmanned) spacecraft to the Moon since then, as have other nations.  Look up Clementine, SMART-1 (European Space Agency), and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter for more information.

NASA is currently developing a spacecraft to return people to the moon within the next decade or two.  Look up "Crew Exploration Vehicle" on a NASA website to learn more about it.

I hope this helps.