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Well my first thought to answer that question is -- how do the funding levels compare between now and then?

pdonis 2y ago
The combined Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs cost around $30 billion in then year dollars, which equates to about $300 billion in today's dollars. That's an average of about $25 billion a year over 12 years. That's about the same as what is being spent per year on NASA now.
- bumby 2y ago
  But it’s now spread across many, many more missions. People sometimes forget that human exploration is just one of multiple directorates within NASA.
  - pdonis 2y ago
    NASA was doing plenty of unmanned missions during the Mercury-Gemini-Apollo years: the Explorer, Pioneer, Echo, Ranger, Telstar, Mariner, Lunar Explorer, and Surveyor programs all had multiple missions in that time period. So no, I don't buy the argument that NASA has to spread its budget over many more missions now as compared to then.
    - bumby 2y ago
      Many of those you mentioned are still part of the goal of getting a human on the moon. That's like saying Starliner's Demo flights don't count as human-rated because they were uncrewed. About a one third to one half of NASA's budget is dedicated to exploration and space operations which is a better comparison for what you're driving at. The rest is spread across science, aeronautics, environmental, educational outreach, and other goals.
      - pdonis 2y ago
        > Many of those you mentioned are still part of the goal of getting a human on the moon. Some of them were for getting more detailed information about the Moon prior to sending the Apollo missions there. But most of them were general solar system exploration. > That's like saying Starliner's Demo flights don't count as human-rated because they were uncrewed. No, it isn't. The counterpart in the 1960s to these missions would be the uncrewed flights of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft that were done prior to the first crewed missions. I did not include those in the unmanned missions I listed.

The combined Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs cost around $30 billion in then year dollars, which equates to about $300 billion in today's dollars. That's an average of about $25 billion a year over 12 years. That's about the same as what is being spent per year on NASA now.

bumby 2y ago
But it’s now spread across many, many more missions. People sometimes forget that human exploration is just one of multiple directorates within NASA.
- pdonis 2y ago
  NASA was doing plenty of unmanned missions during the Mercury-Gemini-Apollo years: the Explorer, Pioneer, Echo, Ranger, Telstar, Mariner, Lunar Explorer, and Surveyor programs all had multiple missions in that time period. So no, I don't buy the argument that NASA has to spread its budget over many more missions now as compared to then.
  - bumby 2y ago
    Many of those you mentioned are still part of the goal of getting a human on the moon. That's like saying Starliner's Demo flights don't count as human-rated because they were uncrewed. About a one third to one half of NASA's budget is dedicated to exploration and space operations which is a better comparison for what you're driving at. The rest is spread across science, aeronautics, environmental, educational outreach, and other goals.
    - pdonis 2y ago
      > Many of those you mentioned are still part of the goal of getting a human on the moon. Some of them were for getting more detailed information about the Moon prior to sending the Apollo missions there. But most of them were general solar system exploration. > That's like saying Starliner's Demo flights don't count as human-rated because they were uncrewed. No, it isn't. The counterpart in the 1960s to these missions would be the uncrewed flights of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft that were done prior to the first crewed missions. I did not include those in the unmanned missions I listed.