Why is America Going Back to the Moon

By: Mark Whittington

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The moon has held a fascination with Americans ever since President John F. Kennedy threw down the gauntlet and challenged the Soviet Union to a race to land a man on Earth’s neatest neighbor and return him safely to the Earth. 60 years later, a different president of the United States, Donald Trump, proposed that Americans and astronauts from American allies return to the moon. Trump’s Artemis project, unlike previous attempts to return to the moon, looks like it actually may succeed. Why does American want to return to the moon? Is it science? Is it riches? Is it glory? Or, perhaps, it is a combination of the three. Mark R. Whittington, author of Why is it so Hard to Go Back to the Moon and Children of Apollo, seeks to answer that question in Why is America Going Back to the Moon