There is so much talk about going back to the moon that I thought it might make an interesting topic for today's article. The first landing on the moon was very exciting and those that are still around who saw it, will never forget it I am sure. As we continued to send ships there but government said that the American people were losing interest in the moon landing program only after a few flights The following is a list of the manned landings on the moon:

Apollo 11 - July 16, 1969. Man first stepped on the moon on July 20, 1969
Apollo 12 - November 14, 1969. Second manned landing on the moon
Apollo 14 - January 31, 1971. Alan Shepard makes it to the moon
Apollo 15 - July 26, 1971. First time men drove on the moon. They used a Lunar Rover
Apollo 16 - April 16, 1972. Fifth manned landing on the moon
Apollo 17 - December 7, 1972. Last manned moon mission.

Notice that Apollo 13 is not on the list of successful landings, because it never made it to the moon and the astronauts were lucky to make it back to Earth alive. There was an explosion aboard the Apollo craft that forced the astronauts to have to swing around the moon and come back to Earth while sitting inside the Lunar Lander, a much smaller craft designed to land the astronauts on the moon. Some say that an Apollo mission should not have ever had the number 13. I don't believe it this personally, but it is quite a coincidence that the Apollo 13 mission was the one to go bad, still, everyone survived.

Aries I Rocket

Many stories have circulated that state that the reason we stopped going to the moon was not public empathy, after all there were still unused Apollo capsules and Saturn 5 rockets ready to make the trip. Why would all this money be thrown away? They contended that when the astronauts got to the moon, what they found there was totally unexpected. It was said that there were buildings and ufos within plain sight and that the occupants thereof warned us never to go to the moon again. Indeed there are recordings and transcripts of astronauts claiming to see strange things there and also being followed in their craft by ufos. One can see photos of moon structures all over the internet and there are people that worked for NASA that have gotten involved with the "disclosure project" that claim that their jobs were air brushing out alien craft and structures from photos for NASA. There seems to be enough evidence to make a case for this. So why are we announcing we are going back?

First of all, that isn't scheduled to happen for many years. It is very easy for a president to announce things that will happen after his presidency, because he won't be around to have to assure it does. It is sort of like saying, and this has been said by the current president, that we will have a balanced budget ten years from now, because of steps he is taking. This is great because when it doesn't happen you can blame the other guy who is the current president. Why do I mention this? It is because I don't really believe that we are sincere about going back to the moon. It may happen anyway because civilian companies are making great strides in space travel and this may ultimately take us to another moon flight. When programs are announced companies get millions of dollars to research them so that is a way of getting bucks to your favorite company. I certainly could be wrong with my assessment, but I will believe we are actually going back when I see it.

Orion Crew Vehicle

For the sake of this article let's pretend that the U.S. is going to work toward returning to the moon with a civilian program. By the way some say we are already there through a secret Air Force Program and that we are already on Mars also. NASA is preparing to investigate the use of an Ares I upper stage launch vehicle. An Orion Crew Vehicle will hold the crew on its way to the moon. Yes it does look just like an Apollo capsule but is said to be much more modern and roomy. I guess one would have expected the capsule to look different, after all these years, but I won't be so petty as to hold that against NASA, but some have, saying that it is really old technology that is used in its design. Here is what NASA has to say about that, "Orion’s design will borrow its shape from the capsules of the past, but takes advantage of 21st century technology in computers, electronics, life support, propulsion and heat protection systems." The contract was already awarded to Lockheed Martin Corporation, last year, to build the capsule. It is said that the capsule will be 2.5 times larger inside than the Apollo capsule, but will also carry more crew members. The capsule was designed for four people on a trip to the moon and six people for a trip to Mars or the space station. When you figure this out, a crew of six will have barely more room than the Apollo crew of three had. It is said that it will be used for trips to the space station by 2014 and trips to the moon by 2020. This saddens me to think that we are still going to have that worthless space station eating billions of dollars of our space budget in 2014. One thing that puzzles me is the fact that six people are going into the Orion capsule for a trip to Mars? A trip of that length requires some sort of radiation protection. This means less room in the capsule, I wonder how this can be?

So if we get to the moon then what? There is talk and plans by NASA, to set up a base on the moon. They explored all types of structures and seem to be leaning to inflatable buildings. They are light and easily maintained as long as they are not struck by a meteorite. This will not be ordinary structures but more a duplex type, that is they will have two floors. I have read reports that indicate astronauts might stay on the base for up to 12 weeks. This would give them time to conduct many different types of experiments. Is that the main mission of returning to the moon? There are two other reasons for going back to the moon that are probably more important to the government and they are mining the rich minerals from the moon and secondly creating a military base, not necessarily in that order. In order to mine the minerals from the moon and transport them back to Earth, large transport vessels will have to be designed. In the distant future. Factories might be built on the moon and we could manufacture items there. Can you see it, you turn a transistor radio over and the tag on the back states "Made on the Moon"? As for military bases, it is inevitable because of our mind set, it is also unfortunate.

Somewhere along the line, I just can't help but feel that someone will say that we can't afford this project and it will get cut then cancelled and the only ones to get any benefit from it will be the contractors and sub contractors. I sure hope that I am wrong about this. If we are going to continue to pour thousands of billions of dollars into wars then you know that the space station will remain but the moon project won't make it.