The 50th anniversary of John Glenn;s Mercury flight

It's always been a question of money. The Apollo program had 3 more scheduled flights to the moon but Nixon cancelled them. There was even equipment already made for some of the Apollo cancelled flights. Thre of the capsules were used for the Skylab program. One of the big Saturns was used to launch Skylab, the other 4 that we made are rusting relics at Cape Kennedy, Houston Space center, Huntsville, and a NASA center in New Orleans. We cancelled the Shuttle in part because money but also because we were afraid of another disaster. The new moon program proposed by Bush 43 was cancelled due to money by Obama.Now we're supposed to go to an asteroid and Mars, although I think that going to the moon still makes sense. There is the thought that Helium 3 exists on the surface of the moon and Helium 3 is the ideal fuel for fusion reactors. The thought is that there is enough Helium 3 on the moon to power the Earth safely for 1000 years. Since Helium 3 is thought to be formed by solar winds, it would also seem to be a renewable energy source if it can be captured. That alone would seem to be enough reason to go back to the moon. What stumps me is where did all the design information from the Apollo program go. Suddenly we needed to reinvent the program to go back to the moon. I know that some of the scientific advances we've made would change things, but when did we forget how to make rockets. In one respect this doesn't surprise me because we've lost some of tapes of radio messages for Apollo because NASA recorded over them. We haven't totally wasted our time because we have learned a good deal more about Mars. If we were certain to have found water on Mars, it would make a space flight there much easier. We could use the water to make hydrogen and oxygen for fuel and not have to waste weight on carrying the fuel for a return flight. Also, we might be able to use things like carbon fiber inside a ship to make it lighter weight. Plus, hey, we know enough about docking that we could assemble a Mars ship in space meaning we need smaller launch rockets. If only we would ....

Glenn said he wished they hadn't grounded the shuttles but that was Bush's decision. Now we are waiting on private companies to build the next spacecraft for use in going to the space station. NASA is recruiting a new class of astronauts for missions to the space station and planned missions to an asteroid and Mars. I think we're missing the point by not going back to the moon and setting up a permanent colony there. I know right now we probably can't afford if the government ran the program but it would be great if private companies got involved. Right now it looks like we're leaving the moon to the Chinese.

I think I was in the fourth grade then. I remember during spaceflights then, we put a map up on the wall in the classroom and used tacks and colored yarn to follow the flight. After all the years and missions, it seems like nobody paid much attention to the shuttle after awhile or to the space station.