How many men have been on the moon

Referring to Mars missions and a return to the moon, Cunningham said, "NASA's budget is way too low to do all the things that we've talked about. If the Trump administration succeeds in landing astronauts back on to the moon in , that would come at the tail end of what could be Trump's second term, if he gets reelected.

The process of designing, engineering, and testing a spacecraft that could get people to another world easily outlasts a two-term president. But incoming presidents and lawmakers often scrap the previous leader's space-exploration priorities. In , for example, the Bush administration tasked NASA with coming up with a way to replace the space shuttle, which was set to retire, and also return to the moon.

The agency came up with the Constellation program to land astronauts on the moon using a rocket called Ares and a spaceship called Orion.

Trump hasn't scrapped SLS. But he did change Obama's goal of launching astronauts to an asteroid , shifting priorities to moon and Mars missions. I'll just see things as they come. Buzz Aldrin said in testimony to Congress in that he believes the will to return to the moon must come from Capitol Hill.

We demonstrated that for a brief time 45 years ago. I do not believe we have done it since," Aldrin wrote in a statement. The real driving force behind that government commitment to return to the moon is the will of the American people, who vote for politicians and help shape their policy priorities.

But public interest in lunar exploration has always been lukewarm. The political tug-of-war over NASA's mission and budget isn't the only reason people haven't returned to the moon. The moon is also a 4. Its surface is littered with craters and boulders that threaten safe landings. Leading up to the first moon landing in , the US government spent what would be billions in today's dollars to develop, launch, and deliver satellites to the moon to map its surface and help mission planners scout for possible Apollo landing sites.

But a bigger worry is what eons of meteorite impacts have created: regolith, also called moon dust. Madhu Thangavelu , an aeronautical engineer at the University of Southern California, wrote in that the moon is covered in "a fine, talc-like top layer of lunar dust, several inches deep in some regions, which is electrostatically charged through interaction with the solar wind and is very abrasive and clingy, fouling up spacesuits, vehicles and systems very quickly.

Since the landing of Apollo 11 in , a total of twelve 12 astronauts have walked on the Moon. After Armstrong and Aldrin, more astronauts were sent to the Moon in Apollo 12, also in Both of these men were on the Moon for two days.

These two men were Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell. The purpose of their visit to the Moon was to help further study of moon quakes, which means they they carried around instruments on the Moon with them.

Armstrong learnt to fly over different types of aircraft, including the X15 rocket plane which could reach top speeds of over 4, miles per hour. It paved the way for the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon. He was joined by Aldrin 19 minutes later. The two spent about two hours together outside the lunar module, taking photographs and collecting The video recording of his moonwalk was transmitted to Mission Control in Houston and watched by million people on television across the world.

Neil Armstrong had a varied career following his trip to the Moon. He retired from NASA in , announcing he would not fly in space again. He also acted as a spokesman for several businesses, only accepting roles within American companies. These companies include car manufacturer, Chrysler and General Time Corporation. Neil Armstrong died of heart complications on 25 August in Cincinnati, Ohio. As well as many schools and streets across America, The Armstrong Air and Space Museum in his hometown of Wapakoneta and the airport in New Knoxville, Ohio where he took his first flying lessons are also both named in his honour.

A total of 12 male astronauts have landed on the Moon, all of whom were part of the US Apollo mission programme. These six crewed lunar landings occurred between July and December The following astronauts have been to the Moon in order of setting foot on the lunar surface :.

This number of men who have been on the Moon was almost As part of the Apollo 13 mission, Jim Lovell and Fred Haise were scheduled to walk on the Moon, but the lunar landing had to be aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later.

The moment is etched in the collective memory of an entire generation—the blurry black-and-white image of Neil Armstrong descending the stairs of the Apollo 11 lunar module on July 20, to become the first human being to step foot on the moon.

But this first was not the last for NASA. The United States would go on to complete six crewed missions to the moon that landed a total of 12 astronauts all men from to in a series of Apollo missions numbering up to Apollo Crewmen aboard the U.

Iwo Jima, prime recovery ship for the Apollo 13 mission, hoist the Command Module aboard. Been there, done that.