Re: Theatre
<BD says: Apollo astronauts already proved this with real equipment. C'mon Mark, its theatre for media attention and selling books -- nothing more.
You are right in some sense, but if you look back through the history of human exploration, you would not entirely discount the use of theatre to convince a ruler to get an exploratory mission off the ground.
Also, anyone who tries to sell a space mission of any kind to NASA or other government sectors engages in a LOT of showmanship. I know this from experience at Stanford.