Take me to the Moon...

I really hope that future administrations & Congress give the support needed for NASA to follow through on it's plans for a Moon landing by 2018. In my less then educated opinion establishing some of sort of facilities on the moon will be the key to our future space exploration whether they be manned or unmanned exploration missions. So much fuel and power is needed to push vessels through the Earth's atmosphere alone, being able to launch & refuel vessels from the Moon would be such an asset to the program.

The process of setting up a facility on the Moon would also be valuable for future colonization efforts. I've been frustrated for awhile that with the closing of the Apollo program the Moon has been all but ignored instead of maturing to a next level. I've been disappointed with the progress made on the space station project and I've continually angered by the management of the shuttle program.

I'm a space nut, in addition to being a total geek. Even though most of the world has forgotten about them for now, I still like checking in on the two rovers on Mars seeing what new footage they have pulled up. All the while loving the fact that these machines have outlasted even the most optimistic projections for their lifespan on the planet. Being able to take in an alien world is just incredible, continously learning new things about the planet, has me dreaming about the potential for colonization or alien life (no matter how primitive in form).

I'm not optimistic that I'll see space colonization in my life time, which is unfortunate. But with technology in robotics, computers, and even propolsion, advancing at such a fast rate maybe I'm wrong. I'd like to hope so.