Why Did NASA Stop Going To The Moon?

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00:00Around 400,000 people worked on the Apollo program, NASA's flagship mid-20th century

00:06mission to the moon.

00:08Throughout its run, it cost the equivalent today of between $250 and $300 billion.

00:14It took 12 astronauts to the lunar surface, but then it stopped after just three years.

00:20What do you think happened, and why?

00:25First, let's rewind.

00:27Why did NASA even go to the moon in the first place?

00:29Sure, it was an extraordinary achievement, but what exactly made people so desperate

00:34to get there in the 60s, since we've seemingly forgotten all about it today?

00:38One major motivator was the Cold War.

00:40Across the 50s and 60s especially, the Cold War was fought between the US and the USSR

00:45via technological one-upmanship in the arms race and the space race.

00:50Nuclear weapons were getting more and more powerful, though the lack of any actual conflict

00:54thankfully meant that none of them were being used.

00:57So, both sides decided to use their rockets for something else… spaceflight.

01:02And the Soviets took a sizable early lead in the space race.

01:06In 1957, they launched the first-ever satellite into orbit, Sputnik, and later in the same

01:11year, they sent the first animal into orbit, like the dog in Sputnik 2.

01:16The Soviet probe Luna 2 became the first-ever craft to even reach the moon in 1959.

01:21Then in 1961, the USSR sent the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin, and two years after

01:27that the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova.

01:29By contrast, America didn't send a woman into space until Sally Ride in 1983.

01:35And back when the first two Sputniks were launched, the US didn't even have a space

01:39program at all.

01:40NASA wasn't formed until 1958 as a direct result of the Cold War.

01:45So, after the Soviets quickly accomplished a heap of major milestones for space exploration,

01:50it was then down to the USA to do something really impressive.

01:53They didn't settle on the moon landing right away, though, briefly proposing an alternative

01:57plan called Project A119, which was an alleged US Air Force scheme to detonate a nuclear

02:03bomb on the moon.

02:04Luckily, when NASA was formed, the powers that be decided to send people to the moon

02:08instead of weapons, after wisely guessing that the public probably wouldn't appreciate

02:12a nuke in the sky.

02:14And so, the race was on, and the US were in catch-up mode, as the United States government

02:19pumped as much money as possible into the Apollo program.

02:22In 1966, NASA received its biggest-ever share of the US federal budget, 4.5%.

02:29This was $5.9 billion back then, but around $43 billion today.

02:34For perspective, NASA's 2019 kitty equals just less than 0.5% of the federal budget

02:39at $21 billion.

02:41So, they're now given less than half the money they once had.

02:45In reality, the Apollo space program was ludicrously expensive, and critics of the

02:50moon landing labelled it as just one big publicity stunt designed to triumph over the Soviet

02:54Union.

02:55Of course, it was also an incredible achievement for science and humanity, launching an interest

03:00in space travel that remains today.

03:01But, as soon as Apollo 11 actually won the space race, the government started looking

03:06for any excuse to shelve it and save some money.

03:09Overall, the Apollo space program that ended with Apollo 17 in 1972 cost around $150 billion

03:16in today's money.

03:17And while the space race effectively ended in 1969, the Cold War didn't, and the intentions

03:22of the government turned elsewhere.

03:24But NASA itself, created expressly to put a man on the moon, never totally lost interest

03:29in one day returning to our closest neighbour.

03:31It only lost the state funding to do so.

03:33Nevertheless, with NASA seemingly slowing down their efforts, more and more other space

03:37agencies turned their eye to the moon, instead.

03:41Up until 1990, all prospective lunar missions were dominated by the Americans and the Soviets,

03:46but then came the launch of the Hyten from ISAS, Japan's former space program.

03:51After that, the number of moon missions planned by other countries grew and grew.

03:55The current Japanese space program, JAXA, have continued to study the moon, as has the

03:59European Space Agency, and also ISRO in India.

04:03So, on an international scale, just because we're no longer sending people moonwards

04:07doesn't mean we're not still studying it.

04:10Probes and rovers are simply a much more cost-effective and comparatively risk-free option compared

04:14to humans.

04:15They don't need food, water or oxygen, and there's zero danger of illness, injury or

04:20death.

04:21One of the most significant current lunar leaders is the Chang'e 4 spacecraft, sent

04:25by the CNSA, China's official space program.

04:28The Chang'e 4 is our first craft to land on the fabled dark side of the moon.

04:32For some, the move marks the start of a new space race, or new moon race, between China

04:37and America.

04:38Only this time, the US isn't playing catch-up.

04:41For others, though, there's no longer a competition at all, and space travel has become

04:44a much more collaborative process.

04:47Because while the likes of China pushed the boundaries of what was previously possible,

04:51NASA hasn't simply been twiddling its thumbs since 1972.

04:54In fact, the agency reportedly does have plans to put people back on the moon by the late

04:592020s, and they did already launch a revitalized moon initiative, the Constellation Program,

05:04in 2005… although this was subsequently cancelled in 2011, again due to cut government

05:10spending.

05:11What else has happened since the curtain came down on the Apollo missions?

05:14Well, the International Space Station, for one.

05:16A project again more focused on turning space exploration into a united effort, it's jointly

05:21operated by five different space agencies from around the world.

05:25Advocates for the ISS say it holds significantly more promise than another moon landing ever

05:29could, given that it serves as an excellent resource to study the effects of actually

05:33living and working in outer space.

05:35Meanwhile, the moon is still a bleak and desolate prospect by comparison, meaning once again

05:40that NASA's funds are more likely to be spent elsewhere.

05:43But of course, it isn't only the ISS that NASA and the government prefers to spend its

05:47money on.

05:48There's also that other new and exciting prospect that so many have their sights geared

05:52towards…

05:53Mars.

05:54The Mars race is still bubbling away, albeit at a much slower rate than the original space

05:58race did, perhaps because there isn't a war to fuel it.

06:01And NASA certainly has aims to go to Mars, having already sent various probes and rovers

06:05to the red planet.

06:06Earth's other state-funded agencies also seem bound for Mars, but what makes this race

06:11seem different to any other is the power, influence and potential victory of private

06:15companies.

06:16Nowadays, NASA also contends with, or works with, the likes of Boeing, Virgin and SpaceX,

06:21and the global focus has decidedly shifted away from the moon… which now, by comparison,

06:26doesn't even seem so far away.

06:28Today, there are other, even more distant dreams to be had, demanding even greater amounts

06:32of time, expertise and money.

06:35Finally, and despite all the indications that NASA has gone cold on the moon for other reasons,

06:40there are some more outlandish theories out there.

06:42There's the well-peddled conspiracy theory that the moon landings never happened in the

06:46first place, and NASA just can't be bothered to fake elaborate lunar missions anymore.

06:50There's the idea that humans haven't gone back to the moon for almost fifty years for

06:54fear of aliens that supposedly reside there.

06:57And there's the notion that the dark side of the moon actually houses a fleet of deadly

07:01extraterrestrial spaceships, or that the moon itself is but a hollow spaceship primed to

07:06launch.

07:07They're all real theories but not exactly real science, and the likeliest truth simply

07:11isn't quite so exciting.

07:13Sending humans to the moon is an expensive business, and NASA doesn't have the financial

07:17firepower it once did.

07:19Throw into the mix an increasing demand to send explorers to another planet entirely,

07:23and it becomes an even greater task for the agency to balance the books.

07:27While renewed plans to send people and probes to explore the lunar surface prove that interest

07:31in the moon hasn't gone away, unfortunately, the money has.

07:48And that's why NASA stopped going to the moon.

07:51What do you think?

07:52Is there anything we missed?

07:53Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you

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