I am reminded of Q's admonition to Picard about the importance of exploration inward being of greater value than that of the cosmos. I would tend to concur, that self exploration and discovery are pre-eminant, and whatever interest we have in the great wide open should be pursued only to the extent that it will increase our understanding of ourselves more. Before we go shucking out big bucks to deploy yet another space program to the moon, maybe we should consider how that money can be better spent taking care of fundamental needs a little closer to home. In other words, if going to the moon will somehow help us find a cure for cancer that much quicker, then maybe the investment is worth it. Otherwise, for the budget needed to do that sort of thing, I would think the same amount of money applied to laboraty r&d here at home might go a helluva lot further.