Why haven't astronauts been to the moon since 1972

i dont know what else to say

In the 1950's the USSR launched Sputnik atop an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and the nation freaked out. NASA was practically started overnight in response. For most of the early years of the space race the USSR led. First satellite in space, first animal in space, first man in space, first woman in space, first spacewalk... Those were all the USSR. People were scared, literally. President John F Kennedy, in order to quell fears declared the US would reach the moon, and do it first. By doing so JFK made the Moon the real goal effectively lessening the feats the USSR was accomplishing.

So money was poured into NASA, they commanded 4% of the Federal Budget. The goal at this time was not science, it was to gain the high ground in the Cold War, and there isn't any ground higher near Earth than the Moon. We gained that high ground when Buzz and Neil landed on the moon and planted that American flag. After 4 years the US could see the USSR was withdrawing efforts to reach the moon, they were having too many difficulties. Since the US no longer had the USSR driving them further, the motivation to continuing venturing further was lost.

The single greatest financial motivator in the history of mankind is war. When the US saw the USSR wouldn't reach the moon they stopped going. When the Cold War ended in 1989 the US slashed science and research budgets across the board, a great deal of cuts falling on NASA.

Politicians (President Nixon and the USA Congress) decided there were more votes to be won by spending money in other ways than continuing trips to the Moon. We were winding down the Vietnam war, which President Johnson had avoided "paying for" while he was also pushing the "Great Society" and huge new education programs as well.

By 1980, all the programs that built the Saturn Moon rockets had been completely shut down and it would have been incredibly expensive.