By-Pass the Moon?

On Mar 1, 2008, at 10:23 PM, Marcel wrote:
> The only reason to by pass the Moon would be to go to the establish an
> industrial chemical base on the asteroid Ceres. Ceres appears to have
> ice on its surface along with various hydrated minerals. With its
> extremely low gravity well, Ceres could be a great source for hydrogen
> and carbon which would be essential for a lunar colony.
>
Yeah, but it's also a REALLY long way a way. If we had fusion
rockets, then sure, that might make sense. But with the chemical
rockets currently available to us, I just don't think that's
practical (at least until we have a thriving cislunar economy already).