[cripplecreek]

Only a fool cedes the high ground.

[Prodigal Son]

Well, yeah. That's the way I see it. The Chinese and later maybe the Indians (maybe they will have their own space race between the two of them). I just don't see why we should let the Chinese come from nothing (as far as space goes) and have it.

I'm not sure about the moon. I hear some astronauts arguing it's a waste of time. Could be. But I think there are enough rich people on the Earth who would pay a lot of money to go and stay on the moon just as a way of showing how much more exclusive they were than everyone else. I mean, there's no better way to exclude everyone else than to go somewhere they simply cannot afford to go- a different world.

Maybe we could do the moon privately (joint private/Russian venture) and let NASA chase after Mars. Each moon mission would carry a billionaire who paid his own ticket to go up for a week or so and help construct a 'moon hotel'. The ones who paid and worked on it could maybe be part owners (and even a small % ownership could reap massive rewards later for your descendents). Gradually the thing would get bigger and bigger. Etc.