On Apr 20, 9:55*am, Jeff Findley wrote:
In article ,
says...



On 4/19/2012 9:15 AM, Jeff Findley wrote:

Also note that when the US manned lunar program stopped, pretty much
all
unmanned missions stopped as well. *It wasn't until decades later that
new lunar orbiting missions were funded.

Your point?

Preparation for manned lunar landings was the primary driver for US
unmanned lunar missions. *Once the manned missions stopped, the unmanned
missions did as well.

No Buck Rogers, no bucks.

Jeff
--
" Ares 1 is a prime example of the fact that NASA just can't get it
* up anymore... and when they can, it doesn't stay up long. "
* *- tinker

I don't necessarily think unmanned moon missions stopped because
manned ones did. They stopped because NASA was diverting resources to
the shuttle outer planets exploration programs. Only so much money
was available and at the time NASA seemed to think they had worn out
moon exploration.