Since the cold war when the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union began, a few trips to the moon have been made. Man has stepped on the moon numerous times until 1972 when astronaut Gene Cernan stepped on our satellite for the last time. Since then, many people have wondered how many trips to the moon man has made and why more trips to the moon have not been made.
In this article we are going to tell you how many trips to the moon man has made and the reason why no more trips have been made since 1972.
How many trips to the moon have been made
Man has made a total of six manned trips to the Moon. These trips were carried out by NASA, the United States space agency, as part of the famous Apollo program.
The first manned lunar landing took place on July 20, 1969, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin walked on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission. This historic event marked a milestone in space exploration and became an iconic moment. of the history of humanity.
After the success of Apollo 11, five other Apollo missions were carried out with manned landings on the Moon: Apollo 12 in November 1969, Apollo 14 in February 1971, Apollo 15 in July 1971, Apollo 16 in April 1972, and Apollo 17 in December 1972. Each of these missions had a specific scientific goal, which included collecting lunar samples, geological surveys, and conducting experiments to better understand our natural satellite and its relationship to Earth.
Since the last Apollo mission in 1972, no human being has returned to the Moon. However, space exploration continues to advance with other programs and missions aimed at taking astronauts to other destinations, such as Mars and beyond. Human presence on the Moon remains a hotspot for future space missions, and space agencies around the world continue to work on projects and technologies to make this ambitious vision a reality.
It would be incorrect to say that we have not returned to the moon. Many of these voyages are probes and satellites launched in the late XNUMXth and early XNUMXst centuries. However, It's true that we haven't set foot on the moon since 1972, the year Apollo 17 astronaut, Gene Cernan, left our satellite after the last manned mission to the moon.
Why do humans go to the moon?
To find out what led to the journey to Selenite land, we have to go back to the late 1960s. During the Cold War that followed World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union played their unique game of chess on the board. of world chess, and some of the most important moves in the game were contested in what became known as the space race, a tenacious fight between two great powers whose ultimate goal was the moon. In this war, both countries try to show their military and technological advantages over their opponents, which will eventually lead them to hegemony in the world.
Without the Cold War context, it seems difficult to understand how to send missions to our satellites. More than an end in itself, the trip to the moon will set the pace of the international political agenda for the rest of the century showing the world who has more power. But it is also the way to avoid direct conflict between two great powers with rich atomic arsenals capable of mutually annihilating each other, avoiding an ideological struggle between capitalism and communism without lamenting a nuclear catastrophe.
So if landing a man on the moon and back is almost a utopia today, it's easy to imagine what that would have meant 50 years ago. By reaching our satellite and successfully returning, the United States demonstrated technological, military, and economic prowess that sent a very clear message to the rest of the world: "Today, the United States rules here."
Why haven't humans been back to the Moon since 1972?
The truth is we'll never know if we had landed on the moon in 1969 for simple scientific considerations in a different historical context. Everything seems to indicate the opposite. As we said, the reason the United States decided to launch a manned mission to our satellites was due to the tension created by the political situation. Without competition from the Soviet Union, it is hard to imagine that the US government mobilized close to 400.000 people to participate and work on the Apollo program during the 14 years it lasted, which is equivalent to about 106.000 million euros in the present.
Thus, beginning in 1960, the economy of the US space program skyrocketed, reaching a record 5,3 percent of the state budget in 1965. But 5 years later, in the early 1970s, the race Space eventually settled American-style, and NASA suffered major budget cuts for a variety of reasons, including the loss of political interest in the moon and the accident involving the Apollo 13 mission. In fact, these events culminated in: the cancellation of the Apollo 18, 19 and 20 missions, making Apollo 17 the last manned mission to the Moon. Furthermore, perhaps the most compelling reason we haven't returned to the Moon is the simplest: there really is no need to return.
Perhaps the question to be asked is: why go back to the moon when there is so much more to explore? Given the scientific advances made in recent years, the agency has nothing to blame. Today we explore Mars with robots, discovering new solar systems almost every day, and detecting phenomena like gravitational waves that, until recently, were only part of theory. Just because we haven't returned doesn't mean we won't. The next manned satellite mission will take place in 2024, with NASA's Artemis mission aiming to land humans back on the Moon. It is also possible that, this time, he is taking a new step in the lunar regolith, following the example of Neil Armstrong in 1969.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about how many trips to the moon man has made and why he hasn't gone more.