[KevinDavis]

I would like to point out something.. When we purchased the Louisiana Territory, there was controversy about the cost... When Jefferson funded the Lewis and Clark expedition there was controversy about the cost...

[chimera]

Yes, and also remember "Seward's Folly". I mean, why in the world would anyone want to spend the taxpayers' dollars purchasing that frozen wilderness? We'd have been better off pinching those pennies in our decrepit fingers and slouching off to die somewhere, and to heck with future generations, discoveries of which we knew not when we bought the Alaskan territory. There was nothing there but seals and Eskimos.

But, surprise surprise, there turned out to be something there that we really wanted after all, something I'm sure glad we have today. But, back then, nobody had ever heard of Prudhoe Bay...

[anymouse]

When we purchased the Louisiana Territory, there was controversy about the cost...

Well as soon as Congress drafts legislation to purchase lunar or Martian property, then such a comparison is appropriate. Hint: there are some international treaties that have to be abrogated first. Then you have to ask who you would pay? And I'll shoot the first person to say "the UN." :)

When Jefferson funded the Lewis and Clark expedition there was controversy about the cost...

Note that trappers and European and American colonial explorers had been all over Western North America 200 years before L&C showed up. Hint: What languages did Sacajawea use to communicate with native tribes that L&C found along the way? After the commercial spacers have been on the Moon and Mars for a few decades, then maybe we can send a few astronauts to survey and interview a few Martians. :)