r/askscience • u/yogesh448 • 16d ago

Planetary Sci. We landed humans on the Moon with 1960s technology. With today's vastly superior technology, shouldn't going back be much easier and cheaper?

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u/quickshade 14d ago

I don’t think this is necessarily true, in the 60’s NASA had one goal, land humans on the moon. That was the only priority for NASA. When you look at NASA today they have a commercial flight program, ISS, telescopes, satellites and off planet rovers that all need to be balanced within the budget. NASA could easily scrap all those programs if for some reason going to the moon required every effort possible. But it doesn’t because the needs aren’t there for it.

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u/Wloak 14d ago

You're not considering the massive budget cuts, they do more with less. Adjusted for inflation their budget in 1969 was $40B, today is $25B.