50 year anniversary since man last set foot on the moon

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It would be cool if we could build observatories on the far side of the Moon (away from the sky glow created by the earth. Big optical telescopes like Palomar on Earth, but free of the distortions created by the Earth's atmosphere. It would have the advantages of the robot space telescopes like Hubble, but be even bigger. And you could put radio telescopes on the far side of the Moon as well like Arecibo. The Moon has plenty of big holes in the ground that lend themselves to be modified into radio collection dishes the way they used a natural ground depression to make the Arecibo telescope (which sadly has been closed down- it was the sexiest telescope on earth...starred in movies, and in episodes of the X Files).

@ASpartofMe

Being alive then I remember how ambivalent the nation really was about the whole space program (mercury through Apollo) and about spending "all that money just so some clown can plant a flag on the Moon". Both on the national level and on the individual level (individual voters were torn about it).

Thats interesting about the inside story about Nixon. How he was gung-ho about Apollo, but then...wanted us to quit while we were ahead...so to speak...to avoid more disasters.

Kennedy gave that inspiring speech, but privately he didnt give a toss about outer space.

Though Reagan was quite emotionally involved in the Space Shuttle program, and was upset by the Challenger disaster he was a small government guy who would never have spent the money to continue manned missions where they left off in the early Seventies. No men on the Moon, much less on Mars.

George W. Bush was the first POTUS whom I am aware of who even had pipe dreams of reviving manned missions to the Moon, and or Mars. But a little thing came up on his watch called 9-11, and he launched two wars in response. Couldnt afford his space pipe dreams.

I will never forget seeing the image of the last moon walk on my parent's massive box shaped rank arena TV with it's twin antenna. It's one of those iconic images seared in my memory.

I remember some of the Gemini missions

I remember Apollo 1 and the astronauts dying on the launch pad in a flash fire

I remember Apollo 8


Of course I remember Apollo 11

I remember Apollo 13 and the drama about if the astronauts were going to make it back.

Other then 13, I have no memory of any Apollo mission after Apollo 11.

I do remember seeing the protests on the news. I am from Long Island where Grumman the company that built the lunar module was located so there was no open anti moon mission sentiment expressed.

"Moon's haunted."

More seriously, it is kind of a pity that international political tensions were needed to get to the moon, and the momentum just wasn't there afterwards.

Look at the result - over half the planet's population has never experienced a moment when a human being was on the moon. (Heck, that was even the case 20 years ago.) The moon landings were something that happened in our parents' or grandparents' time.