Why Haven't We Been Back to the Moon

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Why Haven't We Been Back To The Moon?

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Why haven't countries other than the U.S. gone to the moon? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answer by C Stuart Hardwick, award-winning science fiction author, on Quora:

The Apollo missions required a 36-story rocket.

Let's just let that sink in a moment.

I work on the 34th floor. To go to the moon, we needed a rocket two floors taller than my office if you count the launch escape tower. In 2016 dollars, it cost $711 million to build a Saturn V--that's just to build it, not to fly it. For comparison, the 86-year-old, 102-story Empire State Building cost $637 million in 2016 dollars. But the Saturn wasn't built to keep and use for 86 years, it was built to go up on a pillar of flame and be reduced over the next few days into dust, debris, and a few precious keepsakes.

People say space travel is so expensive because it's like throwing away a jumbo jet at the end of every trip. No, it's like throwing away an Empire State Building at the end of every trip, or crashing a jumbo jet into two more sitting on the ground.

It's expensive.

The Soviet Union aborted their own manned lunar program after their rocket, almost as big as ours but substantially less capable, blew itself and its launchpad straight to hell. They were planning a mission that would have sent one cosmonaut down to the surface alone, something that with the technology of the time, NASA considered unacceptably dangerous.

No one has been back because it's expensive and dangerous. It's the boldest, most adventuresome, most human accomplishment in the history of our species, but to move beyond it to the true, economic exploitation of the next frontier, we have to change the economics.

Technology has improved in the decades since Apollo, but not as much as you might think. Other than its computers, most of the technology used on Apollo remains essentially state of the art. To open up space, we need ships that don't have to carry all their oxidizer with them and that aren't fated to burn up after one use. That's why these guys are so important right now.

But we also need ships that aren't so complex they end up being more expensive than the disposables they replace. Nothing in space is easy, but we'll get there.

Sci-fi author C Stuart Hardwick is an L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future winner and a two-time Baen Memorial Award finalist. A southerner from South Dakota, he's been known to wear a cape. Check him out at www.cStuartHardwick.com.

This question originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:​

• The Moon: What did Neil Armstrong do after the moon landing?
• Space Exploration: Why do so many ISS astronauts cross their arms?
• The Solar System: Why do so few planets/moons have atmospheres?

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Why Haven't We Been Back to the Moon

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/04/07/why-havent-we-been-back-to-the-moon/

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