Story one, we never went back.

It has been nearly 50 years since the last human being set foot upon the lunar surface. Were budget constraints really the driving

force behind this decision or was it something far more sinister? If the accounts of certain

whistleblowers are to be believed, then it might just be that there

is something on the moon. You're going to be. And then. History tells us that between 1969 and 1972, American astronauts completed a total of six successful

landings on the surface of the moon.

The last of these missions, Apollo 17, concluded on the 19th of December 1972, when Eugene

Cernon, Harrison Schmidt and Ronald Evans were recovered from the Pacific Ocean by the crew of the USS Ticonderoga.

But despite a further three Apollo missions having been planned to follow on from this,

no other manned expedition from any nation has since taken place.

The official justification behind this sudden reversal in NASA's Lunar Exploration

Program was a shift in both the financial and political landscapes.

At the height of the Cold War, America's victory in the space race, being the first major

power to achieve a successful man landing,

provided Richard Nixon with the prestige and propaganda he needed over his Soviet rivals.

But the overall costs of the program had rocketed from an initial estimate of 7 billion to

well over 20 and this huge expenditure proved difficult to maintain. The technology available at the time only allowed for a period of

mere hours on the moon surface on each occasion and with no natural resources or significant

scientific material forthcoming from the first few trips,

NASA found it impossible to secure the funding needed to carry out what remained of their program.

With the landmark victory now achieved by the Western powers,

Russia's passion for space exploration also cooled, and as subsequent missile treaties

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