on july 20th 1969 neil armstrong's legendary first lunar steps would inspire generations
to dream of exploring the furthest reaches of space and then it all came to a screeching halt
here we are nearly 50 years later no moon colonies no intergalactic space travel but just when it
looked like the moon would fade away a silo-shaped beacon of hope began to shine on the horizon
that's right with nasa awarding a nearly 3 billion contract to spacex the moon is
definitely on its way to a comeback as exciting as the news is it does beg a few questions like
why did it take us so long to get back to the moon why do we stop going in the first place
and if we've already been to the moon does it even matter if we go back
we thought these questions deserved a deeper dive here on two-bit da vinci
not because they are easy but because they are hard special thanks to private internet
access for sponsoring this video visit privatenotaccess.com davinci to save 78
on a stellar vpn service today july 20th 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the first moon
landing one of the greatest achievements in all of human history it marked what many earthlings
assumed would be a new era of exploration for humankind but what was once the hottest
destination in the solar system has suddenly become the jan brady of space the dejected middle
child who is sick of hearing nothing but mars mars mars in fact it's been over half a century since
the last human ever set foot on the lunar surface you know what sends my heart soaring to the moon
hitting that like button it's one small click for you one giant leap for our channel during the 50s
60s and 70s the entire world was obsessed with the moon the world superpowers poured endless
money into winning the space race at one point the apollo program constituted four percent
of the entire us federal budget so why haven't we been back to the moon in so long one of the
biggest factors keeping humans earthbound isn't gravity but money almost immediately after america
established its victory over the russians all the funding quickly dried up plus by the early
70s bogged down by the vietnam war a global oil crisis and a teetering economy the us government
found itself struggling to justify spending money on space and that's pretty much been the pattern
ever since any time the economy struggles nasa becomes the punching bag after all space flight
ain't cheap it's why until recently only the largest economic superpowers in the
world could even toy with the idea during its heyday the apollo program cost about
billion dollars when adjusted for inflation even the shuttle program which was intended to replace
the apollo program and lower the cost of space flight still cost a whopping 209 billion dollars
averaging to about 1.6 billion dollars per launch scientists will argue that you can't put a price
on knowledge but the world's governments do it all the time and speaking of the government
yet another roadblock for lunar travel has been political whiplash space travel is all about the
long game the apollo program for instance spread across five different presidencies eisenhower
kennedy johnson nixon and ford unfortunately politicians tend to be a bit more nearsighted
than scientists in today's climate it's hard to invest hope in an endeavor that may be
completely abandoned in four years in 2004 the bush administration tried replacing the shuttle
program with the constellation program which involved using a rocket called ares and a ship
called orion to develop permanent lunar outposts once obama came into office priorities shifted
from the moon to mars and even asteroids with money funneled into new multi-purpose rockets
and spaceships like the space launch system the trump administration once again pulled focus back
to the moon and so far the biden administration seems to be continuing in that vein more on that
in a second but all this back and forth over the decades has basically halted the ability to go
back to the moon now it's not like nasa has just been sitting around on their hands doing nothing
of course they've made incredible progress a lot of technology they've developed along the way will
help us in future space exploration but if we're being honest with ourselves what we really want to
see is nasa astronaut setting foot on a celestial body besides earth but we have some good news
as we speak nasa has plans to begin lunar missions as early as the year 2021 with the goal of putting
humans back on the moon by 2024 that's not that far away of course when these plans began in 2017
nasa didn't have a deadline in mind thinking the project could take multiple decades that
was all placed into overdrive president trump and vice president mike pence who set a hard deadline
boots on the moon by 2024. changing the trajectory from decades to years meant nasa would have
significantly less time to cover quite a bit of space but this kind of hard line thinking
lit the rockets under nasa's butt during the apollo years when president kennedy famously
promised to go to the moon within a decade the current mission is called artemis named after
the greek goddess of the hunt and the moon and twin sister of apollo the goal is to send people
to the lunar south pole a feat that we've never done before of course when trump set his 2024
deadline he assumed he'd get a second term in office fortunately the biden administration
also seems to fully support the endeavor recent budget proposals saw nearly 25 billion dollars
allocated to funding these lunar missions a six percent increase over the previous year
of course part of the motivation could be the fact that america is not the only country eyeing
the moon these days before we get back to the show let me tell you about private internet access vpn
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plan i have for two years plus an extra three months for 78 off as of right now nearly half a
dozen countries including china india russia the european space agency and even israel all have
moon missions planned in the works and that's not even including the private interests who have also
caught cases of moon fever in fact many of these private companies spacex have been astronomical
in bringing down the cost of space flight while not all these missions are intended to be human
piloted the reality is we're on the brink of yet another global space race so great we're going
back to the moon but how exactly will we get there the first thing we'll need is a big rocket during
the obama administration nasa began working on the sls the space launch system which when completed
will be the biggest most powerful rocket the agency has ever used taking the crown from the
goat saturn v while nasa does intend to use the outlast on later artemis missions unfortunately
sls isn't quite ready and we have a deadline boots on the moon 2024 i can see the bumper stickers
what other massive space rocket could we use for the job oh i know how about everyone's favorite
flying water tower starship to get a deeper dive on starship shameless plug check out our video we
did here last year nasa awarded contracts to three companies to design landers that could
carry humans to the moon between spacex dynetics and jeff bezos's blue origin spacex ultimately won
out which is great but we will need an amazon distribution center on the moon eventually so
jeff hopefully you're still working on that spacex still has to perform an uncrewed landing to fully
check out all systems with a landing on the lunar surface before nasa decides to put humans in it
but still a major win not just for spacex but for nasa too besides a massive rocket the crew
will also need a new space capsule the orion spacecraft which was originally designed under
the bush administration is designed to carry up to four astronauts for up to 21 days it'll have
large acrylic windows so astronauts can watch the journey kind of like a space minivan maybe
the coolest thing in development is the gateway lunar command module essentially a space station
that will orbit the moon itself astronauts would fly from earth to the gateway then use a lunar
lander to get from the gateway down to the surface of the moon the earliest stages of artemis are
set to take place this year in 2021 and so far the goal remains the same boots on the moon by 2024
but ricky you ask why does it really even matter if we go to the moon or not haven't we already
been there and done that purely from a scientific perspective the moon is a treasure trove of
data unlike the earth whose fossil and mental records have been tainted over the millennia by
tectonic activity and weather and you know humans the surface of the moon has remained completely
unchanged for over 3 billion years samples collected during the apollo era helped us
understand more about the earth as well as the moon's possible origins these samples are still
helping produce scientific papers even to this day this current mission to explore the moon's
south pole could provide even more data on the history of our planet and our solar system and
besides all that sciency stuff the moon will be instrumental in helping humans eventually
get to mars the international space station is approximately 400 kilometers above the earth the
moon orbits about 1 000 times further than that at 400 000 kilometers mars is about 4 million
kilometers from earth while we learn on and around the moon will be instrumental in helping humans to
take the next giant leap into deeper space but if that still doesn't sell you on the moon let's
look at a few reasons that pertain to us right now here on our current planet as of right now a total
of 12 human beings have ever set foot on the moon all white all men all americans with the artemis
mission nasa has made a promise to not just send more men to the moon but to send the first female
astronaut to the moon returning to the moon isn't just a big deal for scientists it's an opportunity
for humanity to reach to higher potential not as nations not as corporations but as a species
of the 12 original moonwalkers only four are still alive if we don't get back to the moon soon we may
find ourselves in a world where no living human has first-hand experience in countering another
world that knowledge those legacies they're too precious to lose these forthcoming moon missions
could prove to be some of the most vital endeavors in all of human history kicking open the door of
possibility and sparking a new era of space travel for all of humanity now that seems worthwhile
right you can't really put a price tag on optimism and hope and that's exactly what happened around
the world during the first space race people looked up at their television sets and watched
live pictures from the moon you can't tell me that children didn't grow up thinking i want
to be an astronaut get their engineering degrees start companies and do cool stuff around the world
and at this point in our civilization in 2021 post pandemic or mid pandemic i think a little
bit of optimism and dreaming and looking up to the moon is exactly what the doctor ordered so
what do you guys think what do you make of all this and are you excited or do you think it's
a waste of money which camp do you fall into i want to say thank you to all of our viewers
as always for watching and a huge shout out to all of our patrons on patreon and our youtube
channel members we couldn't do this show without all of you guys and your support
so if you want to be a rockstar supporter of the show consider joining us on patreon
or join that youtube membership community thank you so much for watching as always we have tons of
other videos that we think you will like and until next time i'm ricky and this is 2-bit davinci