What’s with the Moon?

Lunatics, werewolves, tidal waves, eclipses, Armstrongs, Chandrayaans... All of them are related to moon in someway or the other. Writing this entry on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to moon, it just amazes me of how much impact the white dotted satellite has on the human history.

Been around since the creation/evolution of man (err... and woman), the moon has never ceased to inspire and confuse us. For all the things that the moon can change, it is pretty funny to imagine an earth without it. An earth without the Chinese Lunar Calendar. An earth without its monthly periods of tidal waves (Wow... that's quite a metaphor... :)). The scores and scores of text written by astrologers missing a large chunk. The millions of poems inspired by the moon... all vanished. No Solar or Lunar Eclipses to link Doomsday to. Billions and trillions of dollars to buy weapons instead of spending it on spacecraft and research. And lots and lot more many things that would never exist, if not for the moon. It is pretty convenient and easy to imagine about the things that would not be there if the moon never existed. But it really takes a creative mind to think of the things that would have been there, if there was no moon. Probably a giant reflective mirror to make the night sky bright? Well, who knows...? If you've got some thoughts please do comment in.

Another thing that I have been totally amazed about, are the moon landings of Apollo. We all know that there are numerous conspiracy theories questioning the events that lead to the man-on-moon incident. Keeping all of those aside, I have just one question... rather a few of them... Why has USA never sent a manned mission to moon for the past 36 years? Why has no other country ever been able to replicate the event? 3 years is a long time... we have come eons from the B&W TV to HDTV and to IPTV. The average size of a computer has shrunk from being measured in Sq Meters to sq inches, and there have been much unimaginable advancement in material technology since 1969. Am sure many of us would think it probably was not worth spending so much money to send people to moon. In that case we Indians should be branded fools and idiots to be lagging behind US in space technology by 50 years (first planned manned moon mission for India is in 2020). Agreed that when the Americans had sent men and chimps and dogs to space, we were just launching our first rocket from Thumba. But still things have changed now, we are so connected and well informed, that it should seem possible to work out something. Okay... if u think India is lagging, leave it aside. What about USSR/Russia? They were right there shoulder to shoulder with US. Why didn't they ever succeed, even after 40 years? If you've got any thoughts on it, please do share it.