And vicee versee. That's what Jonah says, anyway.

He's right.

[Thanks to emailer Steve DallaVicenz]

Mars can be a long term goal. We have to colonize/commercialize the moon first and prove that a sustainable effort at cis-lunar development is possible. Mars colonization will be a natural extension of a lunar colony.

Been there, done that... and that's how most people of my aquaintance see it. The Moon will have it's place in space and the future, but it's lost it's ability to inspire. It's too easy!

Kennedy made the point that the reason for going to the moon was because it was hard. That's what he said. We play that speech over and over. It is recognized as inspirational even by people that don't agree. There's something right about taking on challenges. There are all sorts of justifications for exploration. However, going to Mars now would be hard and that's really why we should go. Because we can. The benefits to mankind in spinoffs, in ways we can't even imagine, will surely make the trip worthwhile.

But not for flags and footprints, this time it's for exploration and colonization.

Perhaps the Tranquility City retirement community... where everybody drives a golfcart... will one day be a going concern. Take your kids to DisneyLune when they visit GrandMa and GrandPa, but not anytime soon.

Industrialization of the asteroid belt will most likely be done robotically at first. Attach a solar sail (and thank you Rand for the clearest explanation of how they work that I've ever read) to the right rock, then bring it back to where it's needed. The return on that investment will surely spark some corporate interest. One day, with Cheap access to space, those rogue asteroid miners will show why a person on the scene will beat those government and corporate robots every time (not that they won't have there supply of robot tools along with them.) Perhaps we could even convince environmentalist that there's a rock out there they just have to go and save... I bet those that return come back as capitalists!

We're going to Mars. Finally. What we learn from that will make going to the Moon routine and more frequent. It's not going to work the other way around.

People who find Kennedy's speech inspiration haven't given it much thought--they're just emoting. I can think of lots of things that are hard (e.g., moving Pikes Peak from Colorado Springs to Kashmir) that are utterly pointless.

We shouldn't do things because they are easy or hard, but because they're worth whatever degree of difficulty they present. Difficulty is not a value unto itself.