My generation went to the moon.

[Johonny]

45. He didn't go to the moon

The poster is correct. The Russians went to the moon with unmanned spacecraft. Just as we went to Mars and are on Mars with unmanned vehicles. Space and space science is generally been a race for better and better unmanned spacecraft. It isn't as sexy as sending people, but America has been to every planet now and reached the outer edge of our solar system this way. There is little doubt our machines which just get better and better will continue to do most of the science involved in space.

Was the Apollo missions a waste of money... GDP wise spending money large amounts of money (15% of our GDP during those missions) tends to have huge future rewards. So while its true the US could have done everything Apollo did science wise with unmanned vehicles, it is also possible to argue spending money on science is rarely a waste of money. Even Reagan's star wars program had far ranging science returns even if the project was stupid or impractical... it's a debate topic without an easy answer.