An analysis said the reason humanity failed to restart crewed lunar exploration for more than half a century, despite having the technology to reach the moon in the early 1970s, lay not in technical limits but in politics, budgets and international cooperation structures.

Online media outlet Gigazine reported on April 8 that Dominic Vichinanza (도미닉 비치난자), an associate professor at Britain's Anglia Ruskin University, described the long gap after the Apollo programme as a "lack of a sustainable plan".

U.S. crewed moon exploration stopped after Apollo 17 in 1972. A total of 12 astronauts landed on the lunar surface from 1969 to 1972 through the Apollo programme, but similar-level crewed exploration did not resume for about 50 years. Vichinanza said the United States in the early 1970s had the ability to reach the moon regularly. He added it was a natural question to ask why it took so long to go back.

He said the core cause was not a retreat in technology but limits in policy design. The Apollo programme was not built on the premise of long-term sustainability from the start. When President John F. Kennedy declared the goal of a moon landing in 1961, the United States was in the middle of Cold War rivalry. The moon landing was a symbolic project to show superiority in system competition with the Soviet Union as well as a scientific and technological achievement.

The political environment did not last long. Policy continued after Kennedy's assassination, but political momentum for space development weakened quickly as the prolonged Vietnam War added to wartime costs and priorities shifted to domestic reforms. NASA's budget declined after peaking in 1966, and the Apollo programme ended after the goal was achieved.

After that, the United States failed to create conditions to continue crewed lunar exploration steadily. Vichinanza cited stable political commitment, predictable long-term funding and clear goals as elements needed for sustainable space exploration. He said the United States struggled to secure all three at the same time after Apollo.

Policy direction also changed. The Richard Nixon administration approved development of the space shuttle, and NASA's focus shifted from deep-space exploration to low-Earth orbit operations. Various plans to return to the moon were proposed after that, but they were repeatedly halted amid changes of administration and shifts in the congressional environment.

The George W. Bush administration's space exploration initiative was shaken by huge costs and a lack of political support, and it effectively ended under the Bill Clinton administration. A space exploration vision pursued by the Bush administration also included returning to the moon and exploring Mars, but it did not lead to implementation as the direction was revised under the Barack Obama administration.

Vichinanza said the repeated cancellations showed structural limits in the funding system. Large space projects require stable funding over decades, but in practice they have to compete with other budget items such as defence, healthcare and social security, and are heavily affected by political cycles. He also cited changes of administration and shifts in congressional leadership as factors that weaken policy continuity.

A weakened rationale for crewed lunar exploration also had an effect. During the Cold War, there was a clear motive in competition with the Soviet Union, but after the Cold War ended there was a lack of political and social drivers to replace it. Critics also said the usefulness of crewed exploration was limited compared with robotic exploration in terms of scientific results, and there was no clear commercial profit model.

Against this backdrop, the Artemis plan now under way is taking a different approach from the past. Vichinanza stressed that Artemis, in addition to its scientific goal as a stepping stone for Mars exploration, makes cooperation with private companies and international cooperation core pillars.

Private space companies such as SpaceX are participating, dispersing cost and technical risks, and the Artemis Accords, an international cooperation framework on lunar and Mars exploration, have also been established. It is assessed as a mechanism to broaden political support and raise the sustainability of long-term projects.

Vichinanza said, "If Artemis succeeds, it will be because political, economic, social and scientific elements were combined in a sustainable way." He said the 50-year gap after Apollo shows the issue was not technology, but how difficult it is to sustain long-term space exploration in a democratic system.