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How exactly are you measuring "return" in this case? Because I feel that would be nearly impossible.

fsckboy 3y ago
>How exactly are you measuring "return" in this case? it would have been cheaper to send the astronauts to the moon without returning them to earth more seriously, the work that went into developing microelectronics returned a lot to the economy. the human genome project has only just started returning its benefits the R&D for manned moon missions didn't have much in the way of spinoffs.
matthewmcg 3y ago
Right! Even taking "return" very literally, the lunar rock samples brought back are incredibly valuable to science. And the spinoff/technological stimulus value of the program is even harder to quantify--consider that during one year, Project Apollo purchased >60% of U.S. semiconductor production. This was a critical early market for Fairchild Semiconductor, e.g. [1] [1]:https://books.google.com/books?id=gXYItzQARVoC&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dq=apollo+1963+60+percent+chips&source=bl&ots=25jEOr8-_7&sig=ACfU3U197AG7SyxXGyT99LuDEERyvrxG1Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwidnsv0oZ7jAhW8B50JHdmJAvYQ6AEwAXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=apollo%201963%2060%20percent%20chips&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=gXYItzQARVoC&pg=PA127&lpg=...
- angiosperm 3y ago
  Spinoffs from Apollo, anyway, clearly returned more than the cost. The moon rocks, not so much. We have meteorites that came from moon. And from Mars! I could happily leave aside sending anything more to Mars.
bregma 3y ago
Well, you know, things like microelectronics, medical imaging, telecommunications, weather forecasting, stuff like that. Nothing important. Certainly we would have been better off if that money was spent here on Earth rather than sending it all into space.
- cubefox 3y ago
  I am skeptical that those things were invented by the Apollo program, and if they were, it would have been easier to do so without also developing moon landers.

>How exactly are you measuring "return" in this case? it would have been cheaper to send the astronauts to the moon without returning them to earth more seriously, the work that went into developing microelectronics returned a lot to the economy. the human genome project has only just started returning its benefits the R&D for manned moon missions didn't have much in the way of spinoffs.

matthewmcg 3y ago

Right! Even taking "return" very literally, the lunar rock samples brought back are incredibly valuable to science. And the spinoff/technological stimulus value of the program is even harder to quantify--consider that during one year, Project Apollo purchased >60% of U.S. semiconductor production. This was a critical early market for Fairchild Semiconductor, e.g. [1] [1]:https://books.google.com/books?id=gXYItzQARVoC&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dq=apollo+1963+60+percent+chips&source=bl&ots=25jEOr8-_7&sig=ACfU3U197AG7SyxXGyT99LuDEERyvrxG1Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwidnsv0oZ7jAhW8B50JHdmJAvYQ6AEwAXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=apollo%201963%2060%20percent%20chips&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=gXYItzQARVoC&pg=PA127&lpg=...

angiosperm 3y ago
Spinoffs from Apollo, anyway, clearly returned more than the cost. The moon rocks, not so much. We have meteorites that came from moon. And from Mars! I could happily leave aside sending anything more to Mars.

bregma 3y ago

Well, you know, things like microelectronics, medical imaging, telecommunications, weather forecasting, stuff like that. Nothing important. Certainly we would have been better off if that money was spent here on Earth rather than sending it all into space.

cubefox 3y ago
I am skeptical that those things were invented by the Apollo program, and if they were, it would have been easier to do so without also developing moon landers.