actualy NASA don`t want to go to the Moon, they are backpedaling and resisting ideas to start any lunar colony or anything like that, they want to spend the money on "pure" science and research instead, even if they don`t get as much money in total without the moon budget they get to spend more on probes and dumb tonka toys that get lost/stuck and don`t do much, than they would if all the spare cash went on manned flights to the moon, they would have to reduce the pure science to almost nothing, and lotsa scientists in Nasa don`t want that.
likewise McDonnel/Boeing etc don`t want any cheap space launch systems, they are perfectly happy to charge Nasa billions for launchers they have been making for so long they probably only cost $50 each to make by now (sarcasm), they would rather take huge swaths of cash for very little effort than bust a gut developing something cheap as a replacement, look how much they managed to mop up developing the x33 or whatever it was called, 30 billion later they scrapped the idea, 30 billion to make nothing? I could do that for half the money
think how much it costs to maintain a research station at at either of the poles, and all the attempts to close them down as too expensive, it`s just military presence that keeps them open, how long would a lunar base last?, at five hundred to one thousand times the cost of a polar base per year?, I bet you it wouldn`t make it halfway to the next election.
until we get some Henry Ford of space, someone who makes the sort of rocket you see in the comics, easy to maintain, runs on a few gallons of fuel, lands anywhere, can cross the solar system in a few days, then not a lot is going to happen, and realy, if there is bacterial life out there, then the government running the show is the safest option, you don`t want some guy wiping out the human race `cos he never realised he was infected with Martian plague or something and needed to go through decontamination on his return (or maybe just never come back at all for the sake of the rest of humanity).
Mentor.
PC1: P4 3ghz, 1gig mem, 3x160gig hd`s, Radeon 9800pro w cooler (3rd gfx card), 6 way speakers.
PC2: AMD 2ghz, 512mb ram, FX5200 ultra, 16 bit SB.
Mini ATX cases suck.
