NASA seems hell bent to go to Mars, but can't afford to on its own.
Its international partners have no stomach for that — they would would rather return to our moon and build a base there for further exploration.
Doesn't going back to the moon make more sense? Build a base on the moon, and use its low gravity and possible water at the poles as propellant for further space exploration?
Why not the moon first?
http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/7/11868840/moon-return-journey-to-mars-nasa-congress-space-policy
Links:
From NASA itself, in 2008: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/series/moon/why_go_back.html
The all-knowing, ever-trustworthy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_Moon
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @09:25AM
Ain't no "came in peace" plaque on the moon with Dick Nixon's name on it. The moon landing was all just a scam to bankrupt the ruskies. Ifn you want to make a first landing on the moon, best to wait till we solv this terrist problem we gots on earth first tho. Nuke the sandniggas!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08 2016, @01:55PM
EF, is that you? I'm just not sure . . .
Fek the sand niggers. I want to send some of them to the moon, to become moon niggers. I don't even care what color they might be - Asian yellow/olive, American red, African black, or Euro white - and anything in between.
Think about it. We set up a colony. Some of the most intelligent, best educated people in the world are going to go. There won't be any idiots, no grammar school dropouts. The people going to the moon will be a mixed bag of the cream of society, and the creme de la creme. Physically and mentally fit - maybe even spiritually fit. Give it a hundred years, and the Moonies will be bitching and bellyaching about how they've been exploited, and how they should be "entitled".
Let's get the next big race war going - Mudders against the Moonies.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bart9h on Wednesday June 08 2016, @02:38PM
It happened in Asimov's "The Gods Themselves".