Putting Americans Back on the Moon

      After the United States showed clear dominance over the Soviet Union with the moon landings, the space race was effectively over. Missions past Apollo 17 were cancelled and returning humans to lunar soil was not going to happen any time soon. The whole point of the space race was not inventing new technologies and doing what had never been done before for the sake of technological progress and discovery, but for the sake of showing superiority over one another. And once the US had done that, further missions served no purpose.



      Since the Apollo Program, there has been progress made towards returning Americans to the moon. In 2005, President George Bush signed the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 which stated that NASA "shall establish a program to develop a sustained human presence on the Moon." It furthermore stated that Mars was the final destination of the program, the Moon being the stepping stone to go to Mars. This program, the Constellation Program, was created with a goal of humans returning to the moon no later than 2020, as well as completing the International Space Station. However, NASA was operating on a small budget, and it became apparent that an increases in funding would be necessary for the program to succeed, which President Barack Obama didn't want to do. Ultimately, the program was cancelled, it being cut out of NASA's 2011 budget. Essentially, it was becoming more apparent things were no longer moving as smoothly as originally envisioned and there was no concrete idea of how much longer and how much more money was required to complete the goals of the program.



      Returning Americans to the moon was put on hold until the announcing of the Artemis program in 2019. With a goal of putting humans back on the moon no later than 2024, it will certainly be a challenge for NASA. The program, much like the Constellation program before it, also views that the moon can act as a stepping stone for humans to go beyond the moon, specifically, Mars. NASA this time around is also working alongside commercial partners such as SpaceX as well as with other space agencies around the world. Unless similar issues with budget become a concern again, which appears unlikely for at least the time being due to the enthusiasm that the Trump administration has around the program, things seem to be on track for now. However, in order to get greater funding for the program, proposals call for cuts towards the NASA Office of Education, as well as other projects would have to be delayed or developed slower.


Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/space-race
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-to-return-humans-to-the-moon
https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/163092main_constellation_program_overview.pdf
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/35209628/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/nasa-grieves-over-canceled-program/
https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/