Where is Moon Base Alpha?

"It is kind of funny. While the US is all tied up in knots trying to figure out whom to investigate next, Elon Musk is already trying to figure out how to build a rocket ship capable of transporting a hundred people (and supplies) to Mars."

Does anyone have a reason why, after numerous Apollo missions landed on the Moon, one after another, all of a sudden - we quit? By the way, Apollo 17 landed on the Moon in December of 1972. I was still serving on active duty at the time. Most people still had black and white TV sets. A standard transmission was still standard on many cars sold. Bell bottoms were in style and the long haired British groups were still performing. Yes, next month will mark the 46th year since man has set foot on our Moon.

Forward thinkers like Elon Musk think this is crazy - nuts, that we do not have at least one large Moon base right now. I agree. Why in the world do we have a flimsy and unsustainable ISS, when we could have a much more permanent base on the Moon?

For example, we have finally figured out that putting telescopes and research platforms in space, such as Hubble, Chandra, and Kepler, sure make a lot of sense. The upside? No Earth atmosphere to worry about. The downside? If there is a problem (as there is right now with both Chandra and Kepler), house calls to fix them are very, very hard to do. 

With gravity of only 16.6% of Earth's gravity, common sense dictates to launch spacecraft capable of exploring our Solar System, or interstellar space for that matter, the Moon would be the place to start. And please - don't tell me how hard it would be to get to the Moon. Been there, done it, more that once, almost 50 years ago. 

Magellan, Marco Polo, James Cook and so forth, are looked upon as some of the world's greatest explorers. We owe quite a bit to their acumen and bravery. Today, we are anything but explorers. With only 5% of the ocean explored, there are also over a dozen places on Earth which have never been explored. Many, many mysteries and discoveries remain to be found. In fact, some scientists believe  2/3 of all marine life in our oceans remain undiscovered. 

Right now we should not only have Moon Base Alpha, but also Brave and maybe Charlie. We should be mining, exploring and launching from the Moon. We should know the dark side of the Moon like the back of our hands. In the next five to ten years, private concerns from China, maybe India, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and others, are going to be like cheetahs sprinting towards the vast mysteries and rewards of outer space. Meanwhile, NASA will continue to move forward like a sloth, going nowhere.

It is kind of funny. While the US is all tied up in knots trying to figure out whom to investigate next, Elon Musk is already trying to figure out how to build a rocket ship capable of transporting a hundred people (and supplies) to Mars. Nobody on this planet will ever accuse Musk on NOT thinking big. Nutty, maybe. But big, no way.

In any event, by the time our age of enlightenment starts in 2025, I believe this column will be obsolete. Why? The Moon should be very busy by that time. Very busy indeed.