Why did the Americans go to the moon, in the sixties

[Estro Felino]

In your opinion, what induced the Americans to spend millions of dollars on something so useless, unfruitful and above all dangerous?

I have to assume that the Government had money to waste in the sixties

 

[YmirGF]

It was all about Oil. That was why there was two wars fought there...

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Maybe it wouldn't hurt to crack open a few history books on the period.

 

[Estro Felino]

I chose other.
The Apollo missions certainly gave prestige to the astronauts (who must be almost all dead, by now)...but they were useless from an economic point of view.
besides the missions were more than one: evidence that they had so much money to waste.
Usa is very masculine. Competitive and ready to win at any cost

 

[Kilgore Trout]

It was all about Oil. That was why there was two wars fought there...

Weird, I thought it was about Americans trying to impose their imperalistic culture on the poor and noble Mooninites.

 

[Skwim]

They didn't go. It was all a HOAX

 

[YmirGF]

Weird, I thought it was about Americans trying to impose their imperalistic culture on the poor and noble Mooninites.

Well, DUH! Of course it was imperisalism. Why else fight two wars against a primitive culture like the Mooninites? Have you ever wondered why we don't hear more about the Mooninites? Have you?

Pro Tip:The CIA and HuffingtonPost doesn't want you to know about the plight of the Mooninites. That's why!

 

[YmirGF]

I chose other.
The Apollo missions certainly gave prestige to the astronauts (who must be almost all dead, by now)...but they were useless from an economic point of view.
besides the missions were more than one: evidence that they had so much money to waste.
Usa is very masculine. Competitive and ready to win at any cost

I chose not to vote because of the clueless choices offered. To say they were useless economically is about as bizarre a spin as I think one can put on the Moon efforts. The amount of technology that is a direct result of the space program has changed the lives of billions of people on this small, back-water rock.

Though I shiver at the thought, where on Earth are you getting your information? PrisonPlanet? InfoWars? Alternut?

 

[Estro Felino]

Well, DUH! Of course it was imperisalism. Why else fight two wars against a primitive culture like the Mooninites? Have you ever wondered why we don't hear more about the Mooninites? Have you?

Pro Tip:The CIA and HuffingtonPost doesn't want you to know about the plight of the Mooninites. That's why!

Instead of being ironic, answer me sincerely: what did the Americans gain from that?
some useless lunar rocks?

The most laughable thing is that they even left a message.

 

[Monk Of Reason]

Believe it or not one of the main reasons was that we wanted to show the Russians that we could put a military moon base on the moon if we wanted. That would give us a tactical advantage they couldn't overcome. Of course a moon base would be grossly expensive and wouldn't give us what we really needed anyway in terms of military prowess.

 

[Monk Of Reason]

In your opinion, what induced the Americans to spend millions of dollars on something so useless, unfruitful and above all dangerous?

I have to assume that the Government had money to waste in the sixties

Though also to say it was "unfruitful" is an ignorant thing to say. There is a list of thousands of patents created from the space program. The technological advances made from NASA alone has contributed more than any other government or private program to our current way of life and economic growth.
NASA spin-off technologies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The best thing we could do for our country and the world would be increase NASA budget by a few dozen fold and do more projects like the moon landing.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Instead of being ironic, answer me sincerely: what did the Americans gain from that?
some useless lunar rocks?

Knowledge.

And if you don't value knowledge, how about money? I don't have a link handy, but a famous economic impact study found that the Apollo program generated $13 in economic benefit for every $1 spent.

 

[BSM1]

Of course we wanted to beat the Ruskies. They had their pets in space before we had our first human up there. But, seriously. having lived through the entire era I can tell it was no secret that we were, for the most part, playing a game of one upmanship with the Russians.

 

[tytlyf]

Believe it or not one of the main reasons was that we wanted to show the Russians that we could put a military moon base on the moon if we wanted. That would give us a tactical advantage they couldn't overcome. Of course a moon base would be grossly expensive and wouldn't give us what we really needed anyway in terms of military prowess.

I didn't vote because I didn't see this option. You are correct sir.

 

[Willamena]

Instead of being ironic, answer me sincerely: what did the Americans gain from that?
some useless lunar rocks?

The most laughable thing is that they even left a message.

They got lots of useful technologies from the native Moonites.

NASA spin-off technologies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Father Heathen]

In your opinion, what induced the Americans to spend millions of dollars on something so useless, unfruitful and above all dangerous?

I have to assume that the Government had money to waste in the sixties

Clearly, to evoke a lasting, bitter jealously in other nations.

 

[Father Heathen]

They didn't go. It was all a HOAX

Moon landing hoax - RationalWiki

 

[Amechania]

To investigate the Monolith obviously.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Clearly, to evoke a lasting, bitter jealously in other nations.

Mission accomplished.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

To investigate the Monolith obviously.

You mean the Moonolith, of course?