Who turned Earth into a killing-bottle?

[polaris93]

Back in the 1970s, after Apollo 17, which took place in late 1972, some unknown person or persons in the US government, almost certainly in cooperation with others in other governments, made the decision that humanity -- manned exploratory and settling operations in whatever form -- was not going back to the Moon, on to Mars, or to any other

Comments

[brezhnev]

I recall that there was some controversy about why should the US "waste" money on space exploration when there were needy people. So blame the welfare mamas and the politicians who enabled them.

[polaris93]

Yes, to some extent. But if the government had decided to continue the Apollo and Mars programs, and go on to explore and develop the rest of the Solar System, the jobs created and economic boost from that would far and away have overridden the nay-sayers. No, somebody high up took advantage of the nay-sayers to push their own agenda, but not for the sake of welfare mothers, nor because of the machinations of the Senator Proxmires in this country. They took advantage of the nay-sayers, who had no idea they were being taken advantage of. Betcha. Of course, nobody now would ever admit it -- but that's how it happened.