@Wreckless I have carried that whiskey fueled thought in my head for many, many years. US astronauts made it to the moon numerous times on today's equivalent of tin cans and strings. I watched Armstrong's descent from lunar lander Eagle live more than 50 years ago. We hitched LEO rides to ISS with Russians for years.

Here we are today, depending on Eloon to recreate the achievement. I don't know where we went wrong.