Lead
More than 50 years ago, the United States successfully achieved the feat of landing the first human moon under the impetus of the Apollo program, which is not only a major milestone in the history of American spaceflight, but also a major milestone in the history of space flight around the world.
However, the US plan to land on the moon again has been postponed, and the "Artesus program", originally planned for 2024, has now been postponed to 2025.
Why is it so difficult for the United States to go to the moon again?
And what did humans do after the moon landing?
1. Objectives achieved.
On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin successfully became the first person in human history to go into space, and the focus of competition among the world's countries has since shifted to space.
U.S. President John F. Kennedy set a bold goal to put the U.S. astronauts on the moon by the end of the 20th century in order to put the United States ahead of the Soviet Union in the space race.
As soon as this goal was proposed, it received an enthusiastic response from the entire American people, and the Americans believe that this is a very meaningful goal, and only by achieving this goal can the United States continue to maintain its leading position in the international community.
The U.S. government also considered this goal very important to the United States, so they immediately began the moon landing program, which became known as the "Apollo program".
The Apollo program is divided into three phases, the first stage is to achieve astronauts to fly in orbit, the second stage is to achieve astronauts to fly in lunar orbit, and the third stage is to achieve astronauts to land on the moon.
In the first phase of the Apollo program, the United States successfully sent astronauts into space, this time called "Apollo 1".
However, it backfired, and on January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 exploded while testing its engine, killing three astronauts.
After the failure of Apollo 1, the U.S. government announced the suspension of the Apollo program, which skipped the stage of orbital flight and went directly to the test of flying in lunar orbit.
After Apollo 2 successfully completed the test of the lunar orbital flight, Apollo 3 began testing the astronaut lunar module, however, in this test, the astronaut lunar module did not land on the moon, but circled the moon and then returned to Earth.
It wasn't until July 20, 1969, that Apollo 11 landed the first manned man on the moon, and American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to land on the moon in human history.
After that, the United States also conducted five manned landings on the moon, with a total of 12 astronauts on the moon.
In 1972, Apollo 17 became the only Apollo program to explore the lunar surface, ending the U.S. lunar landing program.
So why didn't the U.S. go ahead with the moon landing program?
Second, the cost of capital.
The core purpose of the successful US moon landing was not actually the moon landing itself, but the purpose of maintaining the US position in the international community in the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union.
In 1961, the United States came up with a moon landing program under threat from the Soviet Union's "Vostok Project" – a plan to create a cosmopolitan base camp on Soviet territory.
More than 50 years later, the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union no longer exists, and the United States has already achieved its goal of sending a man to the moon.
The U.S. moon landing program has cost a huge amount of money, and each moon landing program is in the billions of dollars, which is a headache for the U.S. government, because they can't afford to spend so much money to continue the moon landing program.
Moreover, once these funds are taken out, they will also have an impact on other aspects of the United States, because these funds are transferred from the general budget of the United States, so once these funds are used for the moon landing program, then the development of other areas of the United States will be hindered.
During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, these sacrifices may have been made by the U.S. government, but today, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union is no longer hostile, and the United States is no longer willing to continue to invest so much money in the moon landing program.
In addition to financial reasons, another reason is the technical difficulties of the lunar landing program, as early as 1969, the United States sent a lunar probe to the moon on the "Apollo 11".
However, when the probe came into contact with the lunar surface, it produced a large amount of dust, which directly covered the detection system, so it could not be effectively detected.
This also makes NASA worried about the environment on the moon, and they don't know whether the environment on the moon will pose a threat to human life and health, so they don't want to send American astronauts to the moon again.
Third, the production base disappears.
After the end of the Apollo program, the United States did not carry out the moon landing program, because the American production base could no longer support another lunar landing program.
Although the United States trained a group of excellent scientists and engineers during the Apollo program, due to the end of the moon landing program, they no longer had the opportunity to conduct research in related fields, and could only play a role in other fields.
In addition, the U.S. space industry has also undergone earth-shaking changes in the past 50 years, new space technologies have emerged one after another, and American scientists and engineers have devoted themselves to research in new fields.
It was already difficult for them to return to the field of moon landing technology at that time for research, so the production base in the United States disappeared.
To this day, the U.S. plan to go to the moon again has been proposed, but because the U.S. space industry has changed dramatically, it is difficult to carry out another moon landing program.
Fourth, the significance of the human moon landing.
The first human landing on the moon in 1969 was a major milestone in human history, and mankind has since stepped into the space age.
After humans landed on the moon, they brought back a large number of lunar samples from the moon, which were sent to laboratories on Earth for a series of studies.
These findings were used to support the "impact theory," the hypothesis of the birth of the moon, which holds that the moon was struck by debris from a planet called "Chaldeea" at the time of the birth of the Earth.
In addition, there are abundant helium-3 resources found on the moon, which are very poor on Earth, but helium-3 resources can produce a lot of energy in nuclear fusion reactions on Earth.
Helium-3 is very abundant on the moon, so helium-3 resources can be mined on the moon and brought back to Earth for energy production.
In addition, the moon has abundant water resources, which can be used for human life, and can also be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which can be used as fuel for rockets.
The discovery of these resources has made people see the huge potential of the moon, so in the future, it is possible for mankind to establish a lunar base on the moon to further develop the resources on the moon.
Fifth, the difficulties of the United States landing on the moon again.
In addition to the financial and technical challenges of the lunar landing program, international political relations, space cooperation, and commercial interests also affect the advancement of the U.S. lunar landing program.
A few years ago, the United States announced the implementation of the "Artesus Program", which aims to send American astronauts to the moon again in 2024.
However, the advancement of this program has encountered many difficulties, first of all, the US space industry has undergone tremendous changes, so they no longer have the ability to carry out the lunar landing program back then.
Coupled with the increasingly fierce political struggle in the United States, and the allocation of funds for the moon landing program within Congress, the goal of the United States to implement the "Artesus Program" in 2024 is no longer possible.
China successfully achieved a soft landing of Chang'e-4 on the far side of the moon in 2019, the first soft landing on the far side of the moon in human history, so the purpose of China's lunar landing program is not a face-saving project.
China's moon landing was also aimed at taking its first steps into the universe and helping future space exploration by exploring the environment on the moon.
China has put forward the goal of "establishing a long-term research base on the moon", so the moon has the potential to become a springboard for future human space exploration.
epilogue
The feat of human beings landing on the moon has allowed mankind to step into the space age, and human exploration of space is still continuing.