"While science was an important reason for the Apollo moon missions, the pursuit of knowledge may not be enough to return people to Earth's rocky satellite. Schmitt said that when industry begins to take an interest in the moon's mineral resources, that could provide the money to establish a permanent presence there. This could eventually set the stage for humans living on Mars."

OK great. Show me the business plan Harrison. It doesn't exist because there is no way to make money off the Moon at current launch costs. Most of the astronauts were selected for their pilot skills not their engineering or science skills. Harrison Schmitt is a scientist (geologist) but not an engineer trained to do cost benefit analysis and has proposed HE3 for fusion as a reason to develope the Moon despite the fact that HE3 fusion is even tougher to control than the type we have failed at developing for 5 decades. A practical visionary Schmitt is not.

There's a huge if in that quote above. IF business developes the Moon it COULD set the stage for Mars. This statement is absolutely true. However, given the low probability of the first condition and the questionable probabilty of the second this is hardly a reliable plan for reaching Mars.

Please note as well that Martian science captures the public's imagination far more than lunar science does IMO. Scmitt ignores that in setting up his lunar business vision.

However, as someone with direct relevant experience in some areas of relevance his statements such as:

"Human beings offer a unique capability to integrate the total environment to which they are exposed and then react almost instantaneously. Robots are not adept at learning from their mistakes yet, though they are useful for certain basic research tasks, he said. Humans operating robots on the moon could be one option for improving efficiency. "

should carry weight with regard to the humans versus robots issue. I value his opinions related directly to his experience as an astronaut and to geology but not his questionable business and engineering proposals.

Regards,
Mark