[4 Steve Swann] "Fusion reactors"? Did I blink and miss the landmark experiement that proves it is possible to get a positive energy flow from a sustained fusion reaction? Odd, I'm normally all over that sort of thing.

[4 Paul Powell] All the notes and tooling we used the last time was quietly destroyed. It seems that the Apollo project was produced like a military aerospace project would be - highly comparmentalised and subject to certain laws that *require* the manufacturers involved to destroy all documents after 25 years.

Next time someone says "We can put a man on the moon but we can't...." look up in surprise and announce that we *can't* put a man on the moon, not without reinventing all sorts of wheels that we no longer know how to make and that people don't want to pay for.

And it *is* that hard. Hard enough that it drains money from the tax coffers faster than a publically traded bank does every time we do it, poses a severe health risk to the people making the journey at almost every step of the way, and we're not at all sure why we would go in the first place.

Don't get me wrong. I was dragged up during the Von Braun-as-a-good-guy years and fully expected to be taking vacations in the Sea of Tranquility by now. I even had little picture cards I got with ice-lollies that told me what it would all look like, and I still have my "Sky Ray" Space Captain's badge. I'd go myself tomorrow if they asked, and damn the very substantial risks, but I couldn't look anyone in the eye and give them a reason why they should pay for it.

I can do that for Earth orbit space shots of course. People tend to forget that their Cable TV, Cell Phones, GPS devices and even their reliable (hahaha) weather prediction are all predicated on a healthy earth-to-orbit business. But the Moon? We only went there in the first place because the Russions said *they* would and everyone knows you can't let that sort of nonsense go unchallenged (grunt grunt).