As they say, predictions are hard, especially about the future. Apropos of new projects for landings on the moon, and then ventures to Mars and eventually elsewhere in the solar system, and with the rapid development of private and commercial exploration of space (Space-X, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Rocket Lab, etc.), here's a few words from Werner von Braun I happened upon. In July 1969, a few days before Apollo 11 made the successful landing on the moon, he said.
"If our intention had been merely to bring back a handful of soil and rocks from the lunar gravel pit and then forget the whole thing ... we would certainly be history's biggest fools."
Fifty-four years on, and the string of Apollo landings remain the entire history of human presence on the moon. A few handfuls of soil and rocks has long seemed to be about what the world has to show from the von Braun era of space exploration.
But I once saw it noted that after the first few desperate, dangerous attempts to reach the North Pole, no one went back there for many decades. And when they did, it was because aircraft and submarines had developed to the point that the pole was no longer a destination but simply a point on the globe one might fly over or sail under en route to somewhere else.
So maybe spacefaring vehicles are now beginning to approach the point that the Moon will cease to be a heroic challenge and become just one more place one might drop by. If it seemed worthwhile, if people really want to go.
