In the 60's two super powers decided to see who had the bigger peen. That is what the 'Space Race' pretty much wound up being. Political grandstanding on a grand scale. It also happens to be the worst thing to have ever happened for genuine space exploration. To borrow a line from a novel (Firestar) that has stuck with me for some time, it's like we "jumped a chasm twice but never stopped to build a bridge." We were so interested in getting to the moon, we never asked what we'd do with it, and people wonder why we haven't been back.
Before I get too heavy, I know, space travel is not easy. If it were it would be more common place. There are logistics problems that need to be sorted. The problem lies in that, we're not doing it. Much of the problem lies in getting off the ground. A majority of the fuel used in the Shuttle and other rockets is just getting the thing in to space. But if you start in space, then you could use that fuel to travel farther than if you started on the ground.
We have the ISS, and it would actually serve as a semi-decent way station for beginning construction of another facility, which could then be the jumping off point for another, and so on.
There is, as far as I can tell, almost no reason not to do this. The one reason I can think of is "but it's dangerous!" Yes, yes it is. I cannot argue against that point, but I could very well say "So is waking up every day." Ah right, another argument "There's nothing for us out there!" Is that so? Hardly. There are a vast number of heavy metals, water, other minerals, and even the possibility of being able to fabricate materials that cannot be done within Earth's gravity well.
To be quite forward, I feel the question has to be asked, if we can go to the moon, then why the hell can't we go to the moon? Or Mars? Or even seem to leave our own little microcosm?
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