"Steve Dufour" <stevejdufour@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:744cc401.0401082215.3a397a71@posting.google.com...
> NASA plans return to moon
>
>
> By Frank Sietzen Jr. and Keith L. Cowing
> UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
>
>
>
>     NASA plans to scrap its space shuttle fleet to pay for the
> agency's new plan to return to the moon and develop human space
> exploration systems, senior administration officials said.

Unfortunately, this sounds like another 'footprints' mission. There isn't a
real long-term vision of exploration or commercial exploitation. The thing I
fear most is that once people land on Mars, interest in the space program
will falter, resulting in another long gap between it and the next human
space venture.

What worries me even more is what the impact of this will be on any
COMMERCIAL manned space exploration (i.e. tourism, mining, colonization)
efforts. Does anyone have a clue? Could it be that the X-Prize follow up
will simply be deemed irrelevant because it's dwarfed by the manned Mars
effort? Will it dampen or even kill the market for commercial rockets
(non-military vehicles)? How about venture capital not being awarded to some
guy who wants to build a commercial manned orbital vehicle?