Why is there no launch site on the moon?
It would look as if you built a launch site on the moon it would be easier to send vessels into space at a further distance. So why did they stop sending people to the moon?
It would look as if you built a launch site on the moon it would be easier to send vessels into space at a further distance. So why did they stop sending people to the moon?
quantumclaustrophobe
Favorite Answer
We stopped because of expense of the program, and the political will of the US started questioning why we kept going when we had already beat the Russians to the moon. Had we kept going - increasing our presence, first with larger landers and longer stays, then finally with a lunar habitat - by now we would've have much more spaceflight experience, and probably a dozen other benefits - perhaps including a launch facility for heavy-lift vehicles....
suitti
It might make sense to launch stuff from the Moon if you make that stuff on the Moon. That's because the Moon has lower gravity than Earth. But have you ever tried to set your watch while wearing oven mitts? Astronauts wear a suit in space or on the Moon. Doing even simple things is really difficult compared to doing them on Earth. And lots of processes we know how to do on Earth are things that don't work in a vacuum. So for now, it's easier to launch things from the Earth.
All of the Apollo landers were their own lunar launch site.
?
Unfortunately for your plan, everything that might be launched from the moon has to be lifted from the earth first, then slowed and landed on the moon - taking lots of fuel. Once you get it into space there is no point to taking it to the moon (except as part of colonization there)
At one point there were plans to launch large craft in pieces and assemble them in orbit around the earth and then launch from there, but the reduction in size of equipment (computers with 64GB in your pocket phone) has meant that the risks of working in space this way are avoided.
Nathanael
The International Space Station has a launch site, it is much closer than travelling to the moon. We don't send people to the moon any more because it is very expensive and we have no reason to go there, they have explored it enough for now.
Lesus
It was very expensive just sending two people at a time to the moon (with a third person in lunar orbit). In the 1980s NASA spent most of its money on the space shuttle program, which could only reach low earth orbit.