NASA has not been on the moon since 1972. Did you know why?

There are several Internet era businesses, both established and startup, that are talking about space travel. And it's not just for space tourism or delivering equipment to the International Space Station. We also talk about manned trips to the Moon and Mars, establishing permanent settlements. However, NASA, the only institution that has managed to put people on the moon, has not been there since 1972. And she is right to do it.

Being a state-controlled scientific research and defense body, the US, NASA receives public funding, and the public is divided between the need to make a lunar mission, the "yes, without reservation" To the "not absolute", passing through the entire support. But you always have to think about these costs.

NASA's annual budget is less than 20 billion dollars (less than 1% of the state budget), and prepares a mission, builds the necessary equipment and puts a rocket out of the atmosphere of the Earth was going to cost about 130 billion dollars over the 13 years.

So, in this period, one would have to reserve 40% of NASA's budget just to go to the moon, when the agency has a lot of other programs running. Another problem is how each administration insists on making changes. The desire to return to the moon has not been buried since the last mission of the Apollo, and several presidents have thought of the idea. However, party or even person changes have led to the discontinuation of programs only so that others can start over again.

For example, with George W. Bush, NASA had already spent nine million on the Constellation program, but Barack Obama ordered its cancellation to bet on a new rocket, the SLS. Donald Trump has not yet given contrary orders in relation to this, but changed the parameters of the mission that was planned, which was an asteroid, to go before the Moon or Mars.

The astronauts who participated in the Apollo missions, like Jim Lovell or Buzz Aldrin, revealed something desperate for these changes made to the tastes of administrations. For a mission prepared for another body in the solar system that can be done, Republicans and Democrats are required to engage in a single project without outside distractions.