"In other words, if Apollo occupied 2 percent of GDP in 1965, what is the equivalent of 2 percent of GDP in 2019? "The second method is to adjust the costs so that they occupy the same relative share of the nation's economy, or Gross Domestic Product (GDP), over time," Dreier wrote. To adjust the results for inflation, he used NASA's New Start Index, designed specifically for aerospace projects, which is believed to provide more accurate insights compared to the Consumer Price Index, which focuses on household and consumer goods. In reconstructing the cost of Apollo, Dreier evaluated official NASA budget submissions to Congress between 19, actual spending as reported by the space agency and countless supporting documents. "How much money did it take to do it the first time? How was it spent? And, perhaps most importantly, when did the money show up?" Moon program spending in inflation-adjusted dollars. "To properly evaluate the seriousness of this directive, it makes sense to compare its spending proposals to the one data point we have for a successful human lunar mission. "How much was spent on Apollo, and when, is relevant as NASA has once again been directed to return humans to the moon," he writes on the Planetary Society website. Given the Trump administration's directive to send astronauts back to the moon by the end of 2024 in the newly named Artemis program, budget estimates for the Apollo program and the money actually spent provide valuable insights into hurdles the new moon program will face on Capitol Hill. Figuring out the true cost of Apollo missionĬasey Dreier, author of the analysis and senior space policy adviser for the Planetary Society, said the analysis was conducted because the historical record is incomplete, difficult to unravel and, in some cases, simply incorrect. Then, there were communication difficulties that caused the astronauts’ messages at times to “break up." At one point, Astronaut Michael Collins in the command ship volunteered to work overtime – into a scheduled sleep period – to clear communication “bugs.The Apollo 11 anniversary prompted the Planetary Society to reassess how much the world's first moon program ultimately cost. Scientists were hopeful that examination of photos made on the moon will finally pinpoint a definite location of the Sea of Tranquility. Tracking instruments on earth are not precise enough to do the job. Better moon maps will be needed in the future.Īlso, the exact location of Eagle’s landing was still undetermined a week after the event. Scientists are still puzzling over the boulder-filled moon crater that eluded their preflight mapping. Scientists speculated that the Soviet spacecraft was on a mission also to pick up moon samples and return them to earth.
When Astronaut Armstrong saw the Eagle heading straight for a boulder-filled moon crater, he seized the controls and piloted it to a safe landing.īy contrast, Russia’s unmanned Luna 15 steered itself helplessly to destruction on the moon. If the landing-ship Eagle had been piloted by computer alone, it probably would have crashed on this trip, dooming the men.
Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin dispelled fears that explorers might not be able to control themselves in lunar gravity, where men “weigh” one sixth as much as they do on earth. The spacesuits were enough to protect the men from the searing 243-degree sun. They were not struck down by any radioactive "death rays," feared by generations of earthmen. The men reported no meteorite downpours on the moon during their two-hour walk on the Iunar surface. Even their spacecraft dug in only about 3 inches.
The men did not sink into any bottomless dust pits. The moon is not so forbidding as some feared.
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