It's easy to miss how clever the Apollo mission architecture was.
The moon is not so far away in terms of distance but it is very far away in terms of Δv because, not least, you have to land propulsively because there is no atmosphere to slow you down.
Trips to some near-Earth asteroids are easier than the lunar surface, Mars and Venus aren't that much harder because in any of those cases the Moon's gravity can be helpful.
Werner von Braun's early plans to go to the moon
https://www.scribd.com/doc/118710867/Collier-s-Magazine-Man-...
involved multiple launches, space stations, etc. The recognition that you could get there and back with 7 "stages"
* Saturn V 1
* Saturn V 2
* Saturn V 3
* Service Module
* Command Module
* Bottom half of Lunar Module
* Top half of Lunar Module
was the key to realizing Kennedy's dream to do it in a decade.
The moon is not so far away in terms of distance but it is very far away in terms of Δv because, not least, you have to land propulsively because there is no atmosphere to slow you down.
Trips to some near-Earth asteroids are easier than the lunar surface, Mars and Venus aren't that much harder because in any of those cases the Moon's gravity can be helpful.
Werner von Braun's early plans to go to the moon
https://www.scribd.com/doc/118710867/Collier-s-Magazine-Man-...
involved multiple launches, space stations, etc. The recognition that you could get there and back with 7 "stages"
* Saturn V 1 * Saturn V 2 * Saturn V 3 * Service Module * Command Module * Bottom half of Lunar Module * Top half of Lunar Module
was the key to realizing Kennedy's dream to do it in a decade.