Now they're projecting 14 years. To go to the Moon. Which has had lotsa visits.

All of the experience with rockets, the experience in space, the advances in computers and materials science, everything going for them, and it's 14 years out.

Seems silly. As well as going to the Moon at all. The excuse to send men to the Moon in order to pick out the best rocks, etc., seems weak and flawed. Been there, done that, got the patches. And rocks.

The expense of sending men to the Moon instead of robots is ridiculous. Send robots. Cheaper, faster, simpler. If there's anything there worth seeing.

Put Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 on DVDs, and let's all pretend, one mission a year, while someone goes to Mars.

Why not Mars? Man hasn't been there, in person, hasn't had it's own rover, that sort of thing.

Send a little train, a manned vehicle and a couple of science and refueling vehicles. To Mars. Let 'em rendevous, or not, let 'em land 'em or not, land one and refuel in Mars orbit from the other.

Brute force, since the finesse we've developed doesn't seem to have helped. 9 years 45 years ago, 14 years 45 years later.

That's what I think.

And they should get off their asses and do it. Fly the shuttles off into the Sun, and pull a Vietnam on the ISS. Say "we won, did all we could, great job, worth every cent", and let it de-orbit.

And go to Mars.