I am not in favor of a manned expedition to the moon. There are many reasons the foremost of which is the enormous national cost. What will be the cost-to-benefit ratio for having humans on the moon? Unmanned machines can safely accomplish almost all tasks required for scientific or economic purposes as humans could do.
What advantage will there be? Do we want to identify and mine materials there? The cost to bring such material to earth would equal or exceed the cost to establish equipment on the moon’s surface. The cost to establish humans there would be even greater.
The money could be spent on near-earth orbit projects such as Space Lab, Satellites, medical experiments. Florida’s "Space Coast" will continue to thrive as it presently is without a moon program.
I believe we should fund the exploration of our own oceans. They are readily accessible; they are right on our coastlines. We already have extensive experience working in that environment. We could further develop the vehicles to enter that environment by modifying or re-designing them or inventing new types. We can expand our knowledge of the living organisms that live there, many thousands of which we may not yet know. There are no living organisms on the moon. If there were, they could not be kept alive on earth except at great expense. We can develop new concepts of ocean exploration and material retrieval. Any material that can be retrieved will be cheaper to retrieve from the ocean than from an object 238,900 miles away.
Ocean exploration will more directly and cheaply benefit all citizens in the United States. Explore space but limit manned exploration to near orbit ventures.
