I Want To Do Apollo Again...

This makes a hell of a lot of sense...



The point is, there are cheaper, easier ways to get back to the moon, without having to recreate the entire, monsterously expensive Apollo program all over again.  "The Ol'man" (my father, designed space suits and later life support systems for the Air Force & NASA) always maintained that we made  a mistake make the huge leap straight to the moon.  He used to talk about what many in the Air  Force in the 1950's and 1960's had planned upon...

1. Reach Low Earth Orbit...to build an interim temporary (several years duration) space station
2. Use that as a steping stone to build a high earth orbit permanent station.  A station that used "spin" or centrivical force to maintain at least 1/2 G (gravity).
3. Only then, make the leap to the Moon...but not as a short term only days long duration...but to plant permanet colonies and infrastructure/factories to build much larger (it's vastly cheaper to launch from the Moon's surface than from Earth's) vehicles in which to explore first the solar system, then beyond...

But that was tossed aside for the great "leap" to the Moon.  But it was a great political stunt...and got America to the Moon first...

H/T on the video from Instapundit.