I have always wondered about this

around 30 years ago we did the MOON LANDING, now 30 years later we are planning to make a moon landing again in 2020, but shouldn't we have gone way beyond that a long time ago? I mean in 40 years we just went to the same place and back, not beyond it!

Why did technology not increase rapidly, it seems we're stuck in a rut in terms of the space programn.

Then our aeroplanes, its been around 30 years since the concorde came, 30 years later the concorde is out of commission and there are no plans for faster commercial aeroplanes. The latest Airbus is looking at increasing capacity and the latest boeing (787) is looking at being smaller and increasing flight "connections". The 747 which is 30 years old is still flown! (new models obviously but still!)

Why have these last 30 years been so slow? Is it because there were no "big" wars which prevented motivation for large scale research? Or is it a financial problem.

At this rate Mars Colonization is impossible within my lifetime!

Because no one has put money into R&D for said arenas.

After the Apollo moon landing, funding for space projects plummeted. Landing on the moon was a token gesture by Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon to help us 'defeat the Soviets'. As soon as that was done, we didn't care.

Fortunately, private companies like SpaceX and Bigelow are making headways in space travel, and we're going to see some incredibly exciting things in the near future. SpaceX looks to reduce the costs of launching goods into outer space at a fraction of the cost of current NASA programs, and even considerably cheaper than Russian programs as well.

Dude, the moon landing was 41 years ago.

Anyway, plenty of advances have been made... jets are are more efficient, last longer, and are more reliable. Automated and/or remote flight is not only possible but is commonplace in military applications. Stealth technology is being implemented into nearly everything produced by top military powers. NASA figured out how to land something on Mars for 1/4 the expense by bouncing it like a giant beach ball. Everybody with a few bucks and a motive is launching a satellite into space. It's not only commonplace now but it's also inexpensive.

The problem is that advances haven't been in "cool shit" but instead, they've focused on making flight accessible and affordable to the masses while the military has focused on getting pilots out of airplanes and making the planes they do have invisible to sensors.

When you think about it, very little good is achieved by pushing at the moon (or Mars, really) in this day and age. Other than a publicity boost, there isn't much there that can't be done far more effectively and in greater numbers by machines for the same cost.

This one company invented a plane that can also go into outer space. It's called SpaceShipOne

This is very exciting! I did hear about it

I think Virgin is doing something too

@mrstickball

I guess but I have this fascination for space travel

You can bet your ass it is.

Sorry m8, but you have to find something else to dream about.

 Let's face the fact Space (the moon) is boring.

 Also in case you didn't know " Warp speed will kill you"

Making trips to the moon, let alone Mars, is pretty dangerous for the pilots involved.  We lack the technology to properly protect them from radiation from the sun.  Apollo 11 was only a three day mission, yet if they had launched it a couple of days earlier or later it could have been tarnished by the crew being exposed to fatal levels of radiation.  To get to Mars means we need to figure out a way to protect the crew.

As for the Concorde, it's been shown that supersonic air travel is damaging to the atmosphere.  While military application outweighs such concerns, civilian travel just isn't important enough.  Also, the Concorde was expensive as hell to operate, which isn't a good thing for an industry that's been struggling for awhile now.

And as far as SS1 is concerned, the only interesting thing about it is that it's privately developed technology rather than military developed.  It's not much more amazing than the X15 which went into space in pretty much the same fashion.

Anyway, while you're right that that major innovations haven't come along in awhile we've sure gotten better at the ones we've got.  I wouldn't expect major new developments until we can figure out the surviving outside of the magnetic field issue, and then it will probably be light sails or something irrelevant on Earth itself.

1969 to 2010 is 41 years, not 30.
1969 to 2020 is 51 years, not 40.

And yeah, what everybody else said.  There's really no reason to go to other planets until we KILL THE ENTIRE EARTH.  Luckily for us, everybody is working together to do that as quickly as possible, so we'll probably start investing in outer space again pretty soon.

Because Man haven´t been to the moon yet. It was a set up by the Americans.

It doesn´t matter if they are improving all technologies instead on going further...if the moon landing was true, then we should be beyond.  40 years and still its difficult to get. COME ON!

face it!