"I think the Trump administration wants to do something big and bold and the Moon is certainly that idea," he told AFP.

Like I said "America can't be great again unless we lead the world in science and technology."
President Trump is much better advised than me, so you can bet he knows it to.

Scientist are aware that manned missions are much less efficient than robotic missions for conducting science. What is the reason for them, then? I can think of two: (1) bragging rights -- demonstrate to non-scientists that "Trump is great"; (2) a shell game to get rid of climate science. Both of these are bad reasons. NASA will agree to it because they don't want to lose *all* of their people.

Scientist are aware that manned missions are much less efficient than robotic missions for conducting science

Theyre not. Two scientists on mars for 2 weeks could do more science than all the robotic missions sent there to date.

Spread your political bullshit somewhere else.

What is the reason?

George Mallory said it best "Because it's there!" I guess that reason slipped your hate filled mind. :-)

"political bullshit"
"hate filled mind"

I thought by its name and charter that this site might be attended by physicists. Apparently I was wrong.

Robots are indeed more cost effective and safer for science than humans. Human space exploration is of emotional value.

My cynical remarks about Trump are not only well deserved but based on science. Trump and science-denying Republicans want to drastically reduce NASA's earth sciences program in favor of space travel, mainly to eliminate climate science research. If any of you were scientists, you would understand why that is misguided.

"attended by physicists. Apparently I was wrong."

You think your visiting a site, where the other commenters are better than you?
Nope we are all nobody(s) just like you.
The only difference is not all of us are hate filled like you.
You mentioned emotions, as if emotions were a bad thing Mr. Spock :-)

"hate filled like you"

Look to yourself. The only way you could reach that conclusion from my words is that you are both a Trump supporter and a climate science denier. Neither are appropriate on a science site. Don't get your knickers in a twist.

I thought by its name and charter that this site might be attended by physicists. Apparently I was wrong.

Hello smithpd1, and welcome to the monkey cage known as phys.org commenting. Like many newcomers you expected a high standard of discourse and debate. That does happen to some extent, but name-calling and insults are far more common. This science site attracts climate science deniers, black hole deniers, Electric Universe acolytes, creationists, racists, etc. Many users totally ignore the Comments guidelines, and moderation only occurs when a post is reported. If you mouseover (hover) on a comment you will see "Ignore user", "Quote", and "Report" below it. "Ignore user" will blank out all comments by that user; "Quote" will place the comment's text into the 'Add your comment:' box; "Report" will wake up a moderator to review the reported comment.

Hello smithpd1, and welcome to the monkey cage known as phys.org commenting.

Thanks, MarsBars!

First of all: i am from Austria, i don't care about Trump.

I think, we should try to build a small base on Moon. The reasons are:

1) Some day we should try to conquer space and send people to other planets. But we still have to learn a lot. Moon seems to be a good place to do research. Stephen Hawking and some other people are of the opinion, that we will soon be forced to found colonies in space.

2) Moon is much nearer than Mars. If problems occure, politicans and scientists can react much faster. And of course everything would be much cheaper.

3) Some day a Moon base could become a staging area for journeys into deep space. People, proviant and fuel could be collected there, before the journey starts. And the start would be very easy, because Moon has a low gravity.

"I think the Trump administration wants to do something big and bold

They've already got their wall. Isn't that big and bold (and dumb) enough? Americans seem to dig 'dumb'.

Moon is much nearer than Mars. If problems occure, politicans and scientists can react much faster.

For emergencies the Moon is - for all intents and purposes - as far away as Mars. No one is going to slap together a Moon rocket on a few hours (or days) notice to stage a rescue OP. That's only in Hollywood movies. Real life doesn't work that way.

If we really want a goal for human spaceflight then Mars or an asteroid would be it. For anything else (i.e. science) probes and robots do just fine (and at a fraction of the cost).

Labeling people he does not agree with like a true scientist?

smithpd1 -- Trump supporter and a climate science denier.

As usual just hate out of you. Best way to show your hate is to start labeling people that have different opinions than you, right> :-)

Labelers go to my ignore list. And unlike a lot of children on here, I do ignore them.

I do ignore them.

Please start now!

This is not a science article. This is an apologetic attempt at making an unrepentant confessed felony sex offender normal, or something more than normal. Anyone with even the slightest shred of intelligence knows beyond a doubt that you will always know when Trump is lying - his lips are moving. And his lips never seem to stop.
When I read the headline that Trump has been beaten to death, I will celebrate. After recovering from that extensive celebration, I will seriously consider devoting my remaining time to carving the likeness of that True American Hero onto the face of Mount Rushmore. Imagine my inner conflict when it is revealed that Pence did it......

"This is an apologetic attempt at making an unrepentant confessed felony sex offender normal, or something more than normal."

That's already been done by you Marxists and your fellow travelers in the media, see: Clinton, BJ - forced to surrender his law license for lying under oath trying to win a civil suit for sexual harassment (which he later paid $800,000 to settle). He's also been credibly accused of forcible rape. But he's for abortion on demand up until just before it takes its first breath, so it's cool.

As for lying, Obama won "Lie of the Year" from a leftwing "fact checker" for his "if you like your doctor..." in dozens of public speeches while well aware he was lying. He still peppers his speeches with proven lies and debunked "statistics".

Marxists don't believe in principles, honor, ethics, honesty, laws or facts. If it weren't for double standards, you wouldn't have any at all, would you?

For emergencies the Moon is - for all intents and purposes - as far away as Mars. No one is going to slap together a Moon rocket on a few hours (or days) notice to stage a rescue OP.

Not true at all. Moon is only several days away and who says a Moon rocket cannot be ready quickly? SpaceX is aiming for a weekly launch schedule in foreseeable future. A rescue time of 1-2 weeks is certainly possible.

Moon is by far the best destination to develop in situ resource utilization, which is very important for living in space long term.

Also, when it comes to science, humans >> robots. The amount of science that can be done by a small manned base will dwarf anything robots can do. Also, science is not the only goal of NASA, developing manned spaceflight technology is arguably even more important one.

Which "chaos" is he referring to? The only "chaos" is see is at the DNC.