Gawdzilla wrote:mistermack wrote:Yeh, but you can't deny that plenty of rockets HAVE been sent to the moon since.
Just unmanned rockets. So escaping earth's gravity didn't stop them.
They could be mining the moon for water now, using robots, if they don't want to risk a man.
The signal lag is only 1.3 seconds from Earth. You could control a digger from here.
Define "plenty". And compare them to the Lunar Module and Command Capsule.
And you're grossly over-simplifying the issues with robot miners and processing facilities. Fire a factory at the Moon, but first consider the cost of doing so.
The definition of "plenty" is "numerous".
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_moon ... there_been
The NASA Apollo missions also included 3 manned missions that only orbited the Moon : Apollo 8, 10, and 13 (the Apollo 13 landing mission was canceled after damage from an explosion).
There have been numerous unmanned moon landings, 13 soft landings are listed as well as 26 crash landings. Crash landings listed include retired satellites and orbiters, impactors, as well as failed soft landings.
USSR probes
Luna 2 crashed 13 September 1959
Luna 5 crashed 12 May 1965
Luna 7 crashed 7 October 1965
Luna 8 crashed 6 December 1965
Luna 9 landed 3 February 1966
Luna 13 landed 24 December 1966
Luna 15 crashed 21 July 1969
Luna 16 landed 20 September 1970
Luna 17 landed 17 November 1970
Luna 18 crashed 11 September 1971
Luna 20 landed 21 February 1972
Luna 21 landed 15 January 1973
Luna 23 landed 6 November 1974
Luna 24 landed 18 August 1976
NASA / US probes
Ranger 4 crashed 26 April 1962
Ranger 6 crashed 2 February 1964
Ranger 7 crashed 31 July 1964
Ranger 8 crashed 20 February 1965
Ranger 9 crashed 24 March 1965
Surveyor 1 landed 2 June 1966
Surveyor 2 crashed 23 September 1966
Surveyor 3 landed 20 April 1967
Surveyor 4 crashed (or possibly exploded just above surface) 17 July 1967
Surveyor 5 landed 11 September 1967
Surveyor 6 landed 10 November 1967
Surveyor 7 landed 10 January 1968
Lunar Orbiter 1 crashed 29 October 1966
Lunar Orbiter 2 crashed 11 October 1967
Lunar Orbiter 3 crashed 9 October 1967
Lunar Orbiter 4 crashed 31 October 1967
Lunar Orbiter 5 crashed 31 January 1968
Lunar Prospector crashed 31 July 1999
LCROSS crashed 9 October 2009
Other Space Agency Probes
Hiten (Japan) crashed 10 April 1993
SMART 1 (ESA) crashed 3 September 2006
MIP (India) crashed 14 November 2008
Okina (Japan) crashed 12 February 2009
Chang'e 1 (China) crashed 1 March 2009
Kaguya (Japan) crashed 10 June 2009
Read more:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_moon ... z1XSSxYFFn