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"Do we grow our own food on the International Space Station? If not, what plants are good candidates?"
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Question
Why did NASA want to land on the Moon?
The decision to send humans to the Moon was not made by NASA; the Apollo program was proposed by President John Kennedy and received wide political and public support. Thus the people of the United States decided to go to the Moon, and (as the message on the first Apollo lander stated) we "came for all mankind". The many reasons included scientific knowledge, technology development, paving the way for later human trips to Mars, stimulating the human spirit, and demonstrating the superiority of American technology over that of the USSR. The motivations are complex, but at the time (in 1969) the vast majority of Americans agreed that the trip was worthwhile and that Apollo represented one of the greatest accompaniments of human history.
David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
January 15, 2004
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