THE MOON AFTER APOLLO
According to Space.com, since Eugene left in 1972, no one has returned. From 1959 to 1976, the Soviet Union's Luna program brought back samples from the moon and tested orbital maneuvers. According to NASA Science, India was the next nation to "touch" the lunar surface in 2008 when it released an impactor as part of the Chandrayaan-1 mission.
This helped to confirm that there was water on the moon's surface. Russia currently has plans to revive the program with the launch of Luna 25 next month. The private Israeli space company Space and the Indian Space Research Organization have both attempted to land rovers on the moon, but both of those attempts were unsuccessful.
The China National Space Agency has successfully landed three rovers on the lunar surface, two of which are still operational, and one of them, Chang'e 5, has successfully returned samples of the lunar surface. According to the BBC, the Space lander B-E R-E S H-I L went down due to an engine failure, and the ISRO lander V-I K R-A M went down due to a similar issue
THE APOLLO PROGRAM
According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, President John F. Kennedy announced his intention to put a man on the moon in a speech to a joint session of Congress in 1961. Consider that the first man-made satellite, Sputnik, was launched in 1957 and that the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, made his first Earth orbit just a month before Kennedy gave his speech.
The Apollo space program officially started in 1967, and the Apollo 8 mission safely returned three men to Earth. Additionally, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. According to NASA, we returned to the moon five more times over the next three years, landing a total of 12 humans on the surface.
We worked hard to reach the moon for eight ambitious years. The will of the American people and the momentum of Kennedy's ambition were sufficient to see the program through to completion, despite the tragedy of Kennedy's assassination in 1963 and the accident that resulted in the deaths of the Apollo 1 crew. However, we did not return
WHY HAVEN'T WE LANDED ON THE MOON SINCE 1972?
Since wonder awoke within us, humanity has been dreaming of the moon. We have always been drawn to its silver surface, which has inspired authors to tell stories about crossing the ether between worlds. According to astronomy, the earliest story that we know of depicts Greek mariners being carried to the moon on a huge waterspout.
Our stories became more realistic as technology and our understanding of the universe advanced. Jules Verne imagined a trip to the moon's logistics in his 1865 novel "From the Earth to the Moon," including launching from Florida and parachute landing in the ocean. Heinlein imagined the enormous costs and erratic nature of public opinion in his 1950 novel "The Man Who Sold the Moon."
Even though it has been over 50 years since we landed on the moon, films like "Moon" and television shows like "The Expanse" continue to imagine our lives on our silver satellite. This raises the question, "What would it be like?" Why haven't we been back to the moon since 1972, if we are so obsessed with it?
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