there are far too many things to workout with human existance in space to be focusing on a trip all the way to Mars. The focus should be on a permanent base on the moon. This enables our scientists to work out "the kinks" in long term space exposure. It also allows them to do this within relatively close proximity to the Earth should major problems arise.

maybe the government should stop spending billions of dollars trying to get to mars and start taking care of earth!

that is a fine line kars...

There was no walk on the moon. If there was don't you think we would've been back sooner!!

Cudaman, we went back to the moon less than four months after the first landing, and then five more times over the following 3 years until the economy went south. But I'm sure Art Bell never mentioned those landings in his broadcasts, so you might not have heard of them.

or George Noory.

I could see the moon being useful for things like the next generation of Hubble Telescope, or possibly an unmanned base to catalog all the extraneous space trash that is currently orbiting the earth.

There is so much, just...trash flying around, that it's dangerous for both astronauts, and satellites.

It would probably also be handy to have some type of repeater unit there, for radio communications with experiments in deeper space.