>>13382020Have you never heard of the Space Race? You know, a competition between the USA and USSR during the Cold War? Soviets sent a satellite, then Americans right after them. Soviets went to space, then Americans right after them. Soviets did a space walk, Americans right after them. Etc.
And at some point, Moon became a goal. Americans announced their plans in 1960 and finally got there in 1969, meanwhile Soviets were working on a manned Moon flight as well, but in complete secrecy. What gave it away? N1 rocket explosions.
And why would they never do it again, until 2024 that is currently planned? The Soviets couldn't keep up so there was no political reason to go any further. Because Moon stopped being a high priority, NASA got less funding. Because NASA got less funding, they couldn't afford Super Heavy Launch Vehicle that could get people to the Moon. Shuttle was supposed to be a cheap, reusable vehicle but it turned out to be not only extremely expensive to build, but to have high maintenance cost. So during that time you had a project that ate a decent chunk of NASA's not that big budget.
Why are we going again?
I would use the analogy of the south pole, on Earth. There were expeditions to that place at the beginning of the 20th century, and then nothing for about fifty years. Then humans have started setting up bases on research facilities in Antarctica. We have reached the point in history when its financially and technologically viable to go and stay there. In case of space exploration, private companies played a decent part here. For example, you have SpaceX that will launch two modules of Gateway station and resupply it in the future, build human landing system and launch Lunar rovers, all of that for a relatively low price as Falcon Heavy (that launches Gateway Modules) costs about $90 million. In comparison, other Heavy Lift Launch vehicle is Delta IV Heavy that costs about $350 million or retired Saturn V that today would cost $1.23 billions.
