How much money and energy was wasted getting there.
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2 comments:
Not to be contrary for contrary's sake, I'm not sure there's a definitive answer to the implied question: "Was it worth it?"
I recently read an account, while researching some other something, that even KennedyJFK had gotten a bit uncomfortable at the cost/benefit ratio that was coming out of the 'stimulus/investment' in the space race. And clearly, that was at the early stages, before Apollo, even.
A google query returns an article that pegs the total spend on the lunar program at approximately $100B, in 1994 dollars. Not chicken feed, of course, and in the alleged (there seems to be some dispute) words of Everett Dirksen, "..a billion here and a billion there - pretty soon you're talking real money."
I wouldn't necessarily lead the charge for justification of the lunar program, but I do think it should be acknowledged that it had the collateral benefit of tons of R&D (back when we still dominated in manufacturing), as well as the 'soft' benefit of infusing our nation with a "can do" spirit (actually, with respect to your recent post regarding 6/6/44 - I should say: preserving and extending that spirit).
As with any government program, a strict C/B analysis would find lots of deficiencies. What I think can be definitively said, though, is that, in the time since then, and certainly writ large this past decade, we've pissed off far greater sums (even in cost adjusted dollars) with far less to show for it.
Wasted? I don't consider discovering the final frontier a waste. The technology alone was worth the cost, IMHO.
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