Re: Why hasn't another person walked on the moon since Apollo 17

Because Americans are too penny-wise and pound-foolish.

I could go on about this, but essentially it's that 

     (a) we had made our geopolitical point (see, Russia, our rockets are 
         bigger than your rockets!)
     (b) we were trying to cut expenses after our long involvement in Vietnam, 
         a rather expensive war -- but all wars are expensive!

The fact that the Apollo program was costing rather less than what Americans 
were spending on cigarettes or lipstick at the time is what makes this really 
frustrating... we could have a permanent colony on the Moon by now! Other
nations are beginning to approach the point at which they can bypass us and
go into space on their own, but in the 1970s America was the only country rich 
enough to go to the Moon.

And we quit. Now, we would have to re-invent the technology to get us there; 
and there are those who are in the process of doing so. But we wasted a 
tremendous amount of time and money by quitting after Apollo 17!

                                                   Dan Berger