re: #135 freetoken

Yes, very cool! Better yet, would be to have an expedition there and get some samples!

/Billions and billions of dollars… oh well.

Looks like NASA and Obama are soon going to be apologizing for our having beaten the Soviets to the moon:

NASA heads to moon as panel weighs its future
Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:28pm EDT
By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - As NASA prepared to launch its debut mission in a program aimed at returning astronauts to the moon, a presidential panel on Wednesday began looking at alternative ways to get there and whether the United States should even go.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:12 p.m. on Thursday, is designed to map the lunar surface so NASA can find safe and scientifically interesting landing spots for future human missions.

The United States is shifting the focus of its human space program from research and technology development in low-Earth orbit with the space shuttle and International Space Station to an exploration initiative. That would culminate in the return of U.S. astronauts to the moon in 2020 — a half-century after the pioneering Apollo lunar landings of 1969 to 1972.

NASA plans to retire the shuttle fleet in 2010 after eight more missions to complete space station construction. It would then shift funding to ramp up development of a pair of expendable rockets, known as Ares, and a beefed-up Apollo-style capsule called Orion that can ferry crews to the moon and other destinations.

Orion’s debut flight to the space station is targeted for 2015 — five years after the shuttle stops flying.

With costs estimated at more than $100 billion for a lunar excursion and concerns about the five-year gap, President Barack Obama has ordered a top-level review of the U.S. human space program.

Amazing the priorities the guy has, to bankrupt the US first so anything else can be safely ignored.