On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, Steve Mynott wrote: > Maybe history will then repeat itself almost exactly in a Space Race and > the US end up on Mars.
Going to Mars is a dead end. The first team, who'll build an industrial bridghead on Luna using first teleoperation and then automation will win big. The challenge is to package the bootstrap seed in a footprint small enough to be launched by current vehicles within affordable number of missions. As the replication closure grows fewer and fewer support launches are necessary. The monkeys should stay on ground where they belong.
