Rather than dealing with the crap our current administration keeps pushing in our faces, this (SPACE.com -- NASA Moon Plans Advance) is what we should be focusing upon. One of the things I think we really should be focusing upon is the benefits we all reap because of space travel. For example, the entire high tech industry--computers, solid-state electronics, etc., etc.--are direct outgrowths of the push to put a man on the moon and, later, the shuttle program. The misguided souls who blather that we need to spend our tax dollars on the poor here on Earth miss the point: Space exploration creates jobs and wealth which lift us all. In other words, it is not space exploration spending which should be cut, it is things like the war in Iraq which needs to be eliminated. But I digress.
The goal to establish an "Antarctic-like lunar outpost" is a necessary first step. However, if, as some have speculated, there is water ice buried in the moon, then the primary resource for a self-sustaining colony exists. Add the ability to toss 150 tons of "stuff" into low earth orbit (like, say, the material needed to build a real Stanley Kubrick's 2001 style space station) and we have the beginnings of a real self supporting economy. The government is the proper vehicle for developing the infrastructure (rocket technology and initial habitats) to get us out there. Once those are established, I think the continued expansion into space will happen fueled by private industry. The only caveat is, as mentioned earlier, that there has to be water out there. If we have water, we can build our own self-sustaining environments without the need to haul food, water and air up the gravity well from earth. An extra-terrestrial water source gives us both the water we need to sustain life (and grow hydroponic crops for food) and oxygen, to breath, and hydrogen, our raw fuel.
Of course, sooner or later we will have to figure out how to get off this planet, and to come back again, in 100% reusable vehicles. We cannot continue to throw away a significant chunk of what we use to boost off the surface of our planet. That sort of research is going to be both long and expensive, and it will be without immediate payback. In fact, a lot of what we do in space over the next 20-30 years will probably not have a great deal of direct payback to those of us not directly involved with the program. Sure, there will be some technology fall out that will benefit all of us. And the support industry jobs created will employ a bunch of us, but we will not see a great economic return directly from space for that time.
The thing is that this is the right thing to do. We need to keep expanding our presence. If we do not keep moving outwards, we will stagnate and then we will, like a yeast culture in a Petri dish, die. I truly believe this. The only thing that will eventually save mankind is to get the hell off this planet and expand our horizons a little. And, when I say get off this planet, I don't mean a couple guys here and there. I mean a significant number of us taking up permanent residence "out there." I mean creating a viable society off the mother planet. The possibilities are so exciting; from colonizing other planets, moons and, who knows, even asteroids to sending self sustaining biospheres out to other stars, it is both exciting and it gets humanity out of the "one basket" syndrome we are currently in. Then, if something really horrible happens here, at least the species will continue elsewhere.
Aside: There! That was much more fun that Bush-bashing for a change. Not that Bush (et al) don't need constant bashing, mind you, but it is nice to raise one's sights once in a while...
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