don t have the right rockets anymore. rockets for a manned moon mission have to be extremely powerful within eight minutes they have to be able to hurl many tons up into space and accelerate them up to forty thousand kilometers per hour eleven times faster than a bullet moves through the air. that s only possible with extremely powerful thrusters. the saturn five rocket was able to do the job even today the apollo booster engines remain the strongest rockets ever made but no one would build them that way anymore there are better technical solutions to many of the challenges of space flight than there were back in the one nine hundred sixty s. . it still isn t clear which rockets will join the future race to return to the moon nasa space launch system is one contender this animation
. it still isn t clear which rockets will join the future race to return to the moon nasa space launch system is one contender this animation illustrates the largest project the space agency has ever taken on components have already been successfully tested but the rocket has only taken off in computer simulations. another competitor is a private rocket projects that was successfully tested for the first time in february of twenty eighteen. in heavy is considered the most promising heavy lift launch vehicle today it was developed by tesla founder iran musk s other high profile company space x. the falcon heavy has drawn attention in the field at just one hundred fifty million dollars for takeoff it s ten times cheaper than the planes nasa rocket and parts of it are even reusable but it won t be bringing people to the moon just yet because there s another problem there s not enough money. cold hard cash the second reason