This is ignorant fluff to support the Bush version of a space program. No real benefits are portrayed other than pie in the sky. Apollo was a lucky single thread mission performed for cold war bragging rights. No mention is made in this article of weaponizing space; unless that is prevented war debris in space would prevent any moon missions anyway.

A fact/opinion piece makes the case that the last 25 years of circling our planet has been a colossal blunder for NASA. She speaks of robotics and the role this technology will play in future exploration of our solar system, but fails to connect the advances in this technology during the last 25 years, during the time NASA has been circling the planet, to the giant strides toward reaching the goal of human interplanetary exploration.

Whee! This is a marvelously well-written and optimistic article/editorial on the ways and means of future space travel by us - the aggressive humanoids. I just don't see the funding for such exciting peregrinations coming soon from a nation perpetually at war with anyone it can not control.