The Most Expensive Real Estate NOT on Earth

Last Monday, December 4, NASA announced plans to build a permanent station on the moon. By 2020 the organization hopes to begin construction on the station. With the space shuttle fleet being retired by 2010 and a scaled back involvement of the United States in the international space station, it seems we are seeing a shift in the way NASA plans to conduct space exploration. The yearly budget for the operation of the moon base is tentatively set at 17 billion dollars.

While I am in full support of space exploration, I believe that building a permanent base on the moon is redundant. We have landed six manned missions on the moon, with the last one on December 7, 1972. So, why begin going there again? One of the major reasons seems be the speculation that the moon contains elements that may be useful for a variety of applications; however a full mapping for abundances of major and minor elements has yet to be performed. There are less costly unmanned missions which could accomplish this goal. At an annual budget of 17 billion dollars (which is bound to increase), building and maintaining a base on the moon just doesn’t seem practical. Personally I think we should have forgotten the moon after Neil Armstrong made his epic walk somewhere in a Hollywood basement (just kidding). While the moon was a milestone in human history, I don’t see what putting up ten people at 17 billion dollars rent a year will accomplish.