Good idea. I believe we'd have to agree on feasible goals, and then work backward on how to achieve them.

First, if it's knowledge, then, clearly, it's robotics.

If it's Man's collective ego, then we'd have to send a person.

If it's sooner, then robotics. If no hurry, then Man.

Do we want to do this collectively, apolitically, as a project of Man, and involve the EU, Russia, China and the US or do we want to let a couple of affiliations develop and compete?

Would the US be politically able to assume a subordinate role, for instance feeding money to Russian and/or Chinese engineers for rockets and payloads? (That seems the most reasonable, far more reasonable than they sending money to the US for hardware.)

If manned, who?

I like your idea, and those are just some thoughts off the top of my head while waiting for election results. It would be nice to see a sustained, stable, aggressive, multi-national effort not dependent upon political considerations effort toward understanding the neighborhood a bit better.

Arf