« A permanent human research station on the moon is the next logical step. It’s only three days away. We can afford to get it wrong and not kill everybody, » Chris Hadfield, a former astronaut, previously told Business Insider. « And we have a whole bunch of stuff we have to invent and then test in order to learn before we can go deeper out. »
A lunar base could evolve into a fuel depot for deep-space missions, lead to the creation of unprecedented space telescopes, make it easier to live on Mars, and solve longstanding scientific mysteries about Earth and the moon’s creation. It could even spur a thriving off-world economy, perhaps one built around lunar space tourism.
But many astronauts and other experts suggest the biggest impediments to making new crewed moon missions a reality are banal and somewhat depressing.
This why NASA Never Returned To The Moon
