45 years...

[kengr]

Dec 14, 1972. At 2:54 pm PST, the last humans departed from the lunar surface.

How long before we return?

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Gods willing NOT another 45 years... we'll see if Trump's moon directive as worth any more than Bush's.

[kengr]

Oh, I doubt it'll be another 45 years. But it's not all that likely that the next mission to the moon will be by the US.

Japan, China and India seem to be the prime candidates at the moment.

The US may wind up in the same place in history as China.

Remember, China started exploring the world *first*. Then for political reasons, they quit. If they'd kept on, they'd have contacted Europe instead of the other way around. And Probably colonized the Americas.

So instead, they got contacted by Europe and suffered for it.

The US made the same kind of mistake...

[siliconshaman]

Maybe so... America has always had this isolationist tendency, and with the way things are going that seems to be getting worse. That said, Mars may well end up being a company planet. Elon Musk has stated his plans, and Boeing have thrown their hat into the ring by stating they'll get there first [the entire twitter exchange between him and Boeing's CEO is hilarious...but ends in "Game on!"]. So one or the other will win that space race... although we all win really.

I suspect Japan's likely to get there first, with China ending up like Russia the first time around. But I could be wrong. Aside from anything else, if the International Deep Space Portal gets built at L5, then that's going to be a game changer for a lot of manned missions Out There.

[acelightning]

You know I had a very small part in building the Lunar Module that became named the Eagle (as in "...The Eagle has landed - tell your children when!").

Alas, I don't think any human beings are going to be back there in time for there to be a Luna City for me to celebrate my 100th birthday in...

[siliconshaman]

A lot can happen in thirty years.. although you might have to settle for having a somewhat smaller party in what will become Lunar City 1.

[acelightning]

My fallback has always been New York City. No matter what happens, there will always be a wide variety of interesting venues for celebration in the Capital Of Planet Earth.

[kengr]

back in the mid 70s a friend and I made a bet about meeting each other in Luna City in 2001.

At the time we thought the only thing that might keep us from it would be the cost of tickets.

We never dreamed we'd throw away almost all of the space program.

[acelightning]

Up until recently, they were planning to hold the 100th Lunacon in Luna City. I don't know what's happening with that, but Lunacon will not be held at all in 2018, while they try to figure out where the whole concept is going.