ya mean like discovery of non-radioactive Helium 3 where couple of tons can produce energy needed for the entire year of energy hungry country such as US of A. Not to mention that there's enough of it to mine it for many generations to come and it is non-polluting ... http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0397/0397gaz2.html
http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2006/12/72276
Lol, some of us can read and think.
Excerpt from first article:
Even so, the capital needed to support such a venture could amount to about $10-15 billion over a 15-year period.
"Is $15 billion an unreasonable capital requirement on the part of the private sector? Probably not," he said, citing the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline and the Eurotunnel as private projects that cost a similar amount of money. "We're talking about a scale of investment that is not outside the scale of what has already happened."
Lol, the two examples cited were rife with cost overuns, far exceeding the forecasted cost, not to mention the cost of maintenance and replacement. The Alaska Oil pipeline is due for wholesale relacement, as it was designed for a 20 year shelf life, and maintenance costs are skyrocketing because it's replacement is already ten years past due As for the Chunnel, similar story.
Also, the moon is known to be a major influence on Earth's tides, so screwing with it is not a wise step for human life, or any of Earth's life for that matter.
On top of which we have the cost of running the bloated carcass of NASA for these past decades being dwarfed by it's typically runaway costs when running any and all of it's programs:
http://www.spaceprojects.com/iss/
In conclusion, as of the Summer of 2000 the cost estimates for the U.S.A.'s share of the lone remaining space station were around $100 billion. This figure is broken down as follows:
INITIAL DESIGN PAPERWORK -- $10 billion
HARDWARE -- $25 billion
SHUTTLE SERVICING COSTS -- $20 billion
MAINTENANCE -- $41 billion
YEAR 2001 COST OVERRUN (disclosed immediately AFTER the presidential election of 2000): $5 billion.
ROFLMAO@allowing NASA to continue it's waste of taxpayers money- what a frikkin' joke.
What a waste of resources that could feed the hungry, clothe and shelter the poor and needy!
Screw NASA- time to stop the spending of taxpayer money on that bureacratic waste of an agency!
MORE EGREGIOUS NASA COST OVERRUNS:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=NASA+cost+overruns&spell=1
MORE ON NASA WASTE OF MONEY:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=NASA+spending+decades&btnG=Search
NASA has blown TRILLIONS of US taxpayer dollars to provide just what exactly? Anything even remotely worth the expenditures? Nope, nada, zilch, zero.
Privatize it, I say.
BA- My two pence.