Here's a good article on space spectaculars vs. space commerce:

http://blogs.airspacemag.com/moon/2010/05/21/it%e2%80%99s-the-space-economy-stupid/

It kind of helps me to understand why it was that, back in the days when I was active on Usenet, I would find myself and Mars advocates talking past each other when comparing things like lunar resource use or SPS vs. manned expeditions to Mars. All that High Frontier stuff I was talking about was boring, so it was never going to happen. The logic they were using was: exciting goal > excited public > greater public support > more funding. But I think this article very convincingly deflates that argument by demonstrating that not only is there no reason to expect it to be that way in the future, it's not even they way it was during Apollo.

Regards,

Mike Combs

Indeed, Reading over it I couldn't agree more. That one the moon is worth going back to, and that yes Mars can wait if we can build a self sustaining human colony or out post, what have you, and begin the "unlocking" as the article writer called it, of the massive resources of our solar system.

Truly hitting the heart of the matter.
Now to make something clear I do not see any reason to go back to the moon if we are going to plant another flag, and say a few pretty words. Might as well go to Mars and do that, at least then we could get some data that only a human scientist could get in person, and not Earth side...

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Combs, Mike" wrote: