is ‘90% complete’ - months after revealing they were exploring ‘creative approaches’ to get it ready by 2020"
All aboard who’s comin’ aboard. I won’t be amongst them, no siree! I’ll stay on terra firma, thank you very much. Nice to know that all those US dollars are being put to good use though?
If you can’t see the long term value in going back to the moon and pushing beyond spend some time here.
Not only is the direct economic return roughly 8 or 10 for one for every dollar spent the technologies and spin offs have improved the lives of billions around the world and saved the lives of many millions while reducing unnecessary surgeries, complications, suffering etc.
Just think of how the microwave oven, MRI, CT, and ultrasound technologies have changed the world and improved all of our lives.
The moon due to it’s makeup, location, and low gravity is the ideal launch platform for future space exploration within and beyond our own solar system.
Look, you’re a NASA disciple and I’m not, and ne’er the twain shall meet, so there really isn’t much point in pursuing this topics any further?
No I’m not, I’m simply educated and understand the value of the space program having grown up around it and witnessed all the benefits from it that have made everyone’s lives so much better.
8-10:1 direct economic benefit from it. What else can gov’t show to be so effective and profitable that it does?
Without it, you wouldn’t even have this platform to speak on much less most of the modern conveniences you rely on every day.
The old canard - to justify the prodigious cost of a pointless project to reach and colonize ( 
) a dead planet: the invention of the internet was nothing to do with any space project, it was inspirational technology, ie the connection of computers (DARPA?), and would have come about anyway. Oh, and you’re not the only one who’s ‘educated’, and your arrogant patronising is irritating. And as a footnote, you understand only what you find out from NASA’s PR propaganda. The difference between you and me is that you choose to believe it.
Without the space program there would never have been a the PC, fiber optics, HS microwave transmissions, the satellites taht carry your signal across the oceans nor they myriad of plastics now used to create our modern technological devices.
All of those were developed directly in support of the space program or were commercial spin off’s made possible by it.
The integrated circuit, internal harddrive, and modern processors are all direct results of the program.
Whether you can accept it or not the space program has returned billions for every thousand invested in it and made the lives of every person on the planet much better.
We live lives that are much easier, healthier and longer as a direct result of that program.
Without it most of the tech you rely on today would never have been developed at all or would have taken decades, if not centuries to develop.