Today Is...Last Moon Mission Returns

Today in 1972, the Apollo 17 mission plopped down into the Pacific Ocean and two of the astronauts aboard, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, became the last humans to leave their footprints on the Moon because we never bothered going back.
For three days they carried out experiments, collected 741 rock and soil samples and drove around in the lunar rover but they almost never made it at all as President Richard Nixon's was concerned that if the thing didn't make it then it would effect his re-election campaign so held back funding for Apollo 17 until a compromise was reached that it wouldn't take off until after the election.
NASA had hoped to continue with more Apollo missions and eventually establish a permanent moon base but public interest waned and funding for the space program was cut and with the Space Race win under their belt, the US government shifted its priorities towards other endeavors but in total twelve men walked on the moon over the course of six Apollo missions.
Of the 12 only 4 are still alive: Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), David Scott (Apollo 15), Charles Duke (Apollo 16), and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17) and as the the youngest is 88 we could very soon have nobody alive who has walked on anything other than our own planet. 
NASA is now planning its return to the moon through the Artemis program and one of the first things they should do is haul down the flags which were planted in it's surface because at some point Aliens will pass by the moon on the way to Earth and there they will see the six former large stars and stripes not billowing in the lunar breeze and which are by now large white flags which will either reassure intergalactic travelers that us humans are a lovely bunch of pacifists but if they are coming armed with intergalactic lasers to take over our planet and enslave us all then it isn't really the signal we want to send out before they arrive.