Not enough money to go to the moon

I was on my way home last night, as usual on a Thursday evening. got off the train at Taunton at 9pm, into the car and on with the radio.  Inside Science has a spot from 9 to 9.30pm on Radio 4 on a Thursday, and as usual I was listening as I made my way home.

Last night the programme was about the moon, about how it came to be, and about how the last time we took any samples from its surface for scientists was over forty years ago.

There was a lot of discussion about international treaties, which mean that space (including the moon) cannot belong to any one country, but also that there is a hole in those agreements, which means that it's not impossible for a company, rather than a country, to exploit the moon for its own ends.

But the bit that grasped my attention was when I heard that, whilst scientists would love to have more samples to work on given what we have learned about the other planets during the last forty years, we don't have the money to go there.

Interesting, I thought.

We (i.e. the human race) don't have enough money to go to the moon.  Money, a fabrication that we have made for ourselves on Earth, is the limiting factor in mankind going to the moon.

What a crazy system...