Re: Given up on the moon

Actually I feel that it is not just the Moon that the US gave up on. Look at how many missions to explore the solar system are being planned/launched in the future. nly just a tiny trickle compared to 10-15 years ago. Look at the JPL website and see what missions are planned. Apart from a couple of Mars missions the only mission to explore anything in the solar system is the Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres. Nothing to any of the outer planets. Even the Pluto mission is still in danger.

Maurice

It is probably a very good thing that the U.S. did manage to get to the moon first though. Had it been a more agressive country that potentially right now,(not Iraq) presents the greatest future threat to world peace...we would likely be brought to another "Nuclear Brink" in the near distant future from ballistic threat. I've always felt that we were basically developing the space technology primarily for this reason and then a second priority would be the search for off-world water,(not mineral resource mining) as the first step to sub-surface colonization and potential mining rights. I am sure relations will be strained many times over just like the off shore limits/air space limits strain things now. Incidently, I too was "TAKEN"....but they threw me back.