posted on Oct, 11 2007 @ 09:18 AM
Lack of money and lack of public enthusiasm. By the time Apollo 17 was taking off, the majority of people were already bored, since any landing after
Ap. 11 was just anticlimactic. Besides, with the Space Shuttle program (which ended up costing much more than expected) there really wasn't enough
room for another lunar program.
edit: It's not like there is no space exploration going on.
-Mars Exploration Rovers
-Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
-Mars Express
-Venus Express
-Cassini
-New Horizons
-MESSENGER
-LRO
-Rosetta
etc.
This is only current missions; I'm ignoring all the ones that happened between the moon landings and now, such as the Voyagers and Galileo. The fact
is that NASA knows that robotic exploration, while not nearly as grandiose, is almost as effective (if not more so) than human exploration, and far,
far cheaper.
[edit on 11-10-2007 by cdrn]