All this talk about the government or governments going to the moon, Mars, and into outer space is ridiculous. This isn’t the mission of government; rather, private industry/individuals, like minded private groups should be going, exploring, and settling!
We need to get rid of the obnoxious Outer Space Treaty of 1967 which does not allow private ownership of outer space resources. For example, even a small asteroid might contain more gold than has ever been discovered on Earth history but anyone finding it technically couldn’t keep it!
When this is changed, space exploration will enter its Golden Age, and the human spirit will continue to exploit and explore just as we did on this planet!
“contain more gold than “
Except when you get it back to Earth...that amount dumped into the economy will depress the price of gold to near nothing!