[RightWhale]

Interest is building. India, China, Japan, ESA all are working [at a snail's pace] on moon landing programs. The private sector is dreaming big, but with not enough money to do more than a storyboard for their webpage. For China it is a manned landing, the rest are robotic. And NASA? NASA drove their moon people away or underground.

[vannrox]

China's space budget is largely unknown. Expect some real surprises. We should copy their designs after they get the bugs out of their settlements.

[Brett66]

Saw this article on Space.com that stated that NASA was looking at beginning human 100-day class missions in the 2006-2011 timeframe. Such talk seems to have O'Keefe's blessing, this seems to be a positive development. I haven't heard of top NASA officials talk of going back to the moon for years,but it's still low-key talk. This also marks the first time I've heard of a direction for NASA after the ISS is complete since O'Keefe's been administrator. Well, they really didn't use the "M" word, they just talked of 100-day class missions.

Here's the article:

A Sneak Peek at NASA's Plans for Exploring Mars and Beyond