I just finished "The Dark Side of the Moon" by Gerard De Groot, which is a history of the American space program focused on the key people involved and their mo

I just finished "The Dark Side of the Moon" by Gerard De Groot, which is a history of the American space program focused on the key people involved and their motivations. The author argues that a major problem with the manned space program was that we had no rational need to send humans to space. Was going to the moon about science? National defense? International relations and prestige? None of these arguments held up. (Most scientists hated the huge amount of tax money spent on manned space flight that could have been spent more efficiently. The case for sending people instead of robots was based more on fantasy than on reason.) The story makes Eisenhower seem very wise (for trying to avoid getting into a pointless and wasteful race against the Russians and his awareness of how the military industrial complex would serve its own interests at the expense of the nation as a whole). It even points out that Kennedy was nowhere near as enthusiastic about the moon landing as you'd assume and regretted locking the nation into an expensive promise he couldn't get out of. Quotes from astronauts who visited the moon portray it as "magnificent desolation": The first thing that springs to mind is the vivid contrast between the Earth and the Moon... I'm sure that to a geologist the moon is a fascinating place, but this monotonous rock pile, this withered, Sun-seared peach pit out of my window offers absolutely no competition to the gem it orbits. Ah, the Earth, with its verdant valleys, its misty waterfalls... I'd just like to get our job done and get out of here. - Michael Collins, Apollo 11