This sounds like two people in Iowa arguing over whether they're going to ride their bikes to France or Hawaii.

The problem is not deciding between the Moon and Mars, the problem is figuring out a way to get off the Earth's surface and do things in space without bloated multibillion dollar programs to do it.

The International Space Station was supposed to cost $8 billion, which was outrageous enough as it was. I don't know what it will finally cost--$100 billion was the last estimate--but the COST OVERRUNS were $4 billion.

They just launched a truss with some wires and plumbing...a TRUSS...that cost over $390 million. This is more than the cost of two Boeing 747 jetliners, hot off the line and ready to roll. And they contain a few wires and plumbing as well. Now I'm sure NASA could give me some dazzling reasons why a 40 foot structural element would cost more than two fully-equipped jumbo jetliners, but you know what? I ain't buying it.

And the Shuttle? Let's not even go there.

Until we somehow get around having to do everything in space in solid gold*, and using armies of government employees to do everything, we are not even going to get into low earth orbit in any meaningful way, much less to the Moon or Mars.

How? Thirty years ago I would have said private enterprise, no problem. I still think it could be done, but I've hit a lot of brick walls, and am getting a little tired. I'm still rooting for the little guys to come in and pull an end run around the feet of the mammoths.

*For the record, the $100 billion price of the Space Station is about 20 times what it would be worth if it actually were made out of solid gold. ($5.1 billion for 1 million pounds of station at about $320/ounce.)