not it's an appropriate goal for a country, but you're not going to get very far with the nickel and dime approach we're currently using. Not that JPL isn't doing neat science - and given the financial limitations that they work in, they've done a fantastic job, it's just to really answer a lot of the questions we are posing and to enable us to even think about pulling resources from space, we're not doing jack. I completely agree with the "nickel and dime" approach. I was not suggesting that we mine the moon for resources. My use of the moon is to give us a stable structure to build a base on. The ISS is an awesome idea, but we limit our exposure to space by just sending supplies and equipment to the same spot without ever reaching further. The shuttle program was definitely a success if you are willing to limit your goals to just looking down on the earth in awe. Had we spent those 135 missions pushing toward the FWIW, a granparent or so complained that the space program was as underfunded as education. I.e., our priorities are such that the most important future leaning activities are underfunded (or so I understood it). OTOH, I'm not convinced that orbit is such a great place to build things until AFTER we have captured an asteroid, or build a catapult on the moon. There's no materials there to build from, and lofting everything from Earth is rediculously expensive.