Justin wrote: >Does anyone think it will take less than trillions >of dollars to establish a moon base?
The more realistic numbers I've heard are $400 billion for a moon base, double that for a Mars mission. I don't know the incremental cost to sustain the moonbase. Interesting OpEd piece in the NYT today pointing out that a manned Mars expedition becomes *much* more affordable if no return trip is planned. This is not a suicide mission; supplies could be sent for rest of the emigrants natural lives, and with the time they'd have they could actually start towards building a self-sustaining colony, instead of rushing to get science done before a return trip. Frankly, I'd like to see Mars terraformed - start by diverting a comet or two to strike it and thicken the atmosphere so things warm to the point where only respirators and warm clothing are needed instead of spacesuits. At the moment, the highest temperature reached anyplace on Mars is +50F or so, but the rover expects to see night time lows of -150F (FWIW, my town expects -18F tonight, and -50F on top of Mt. Washington is possible (no temperatures include windchill)). Peter Trei
