We should be putting funding into a space elevator. Moving things into space with rockets will be always be incredibly expensive and inefficient. If a space e

We should be putting funding into a space elevator. Moving things into space with rockets will be always be incredibly expensive and inefficient. If a space elevator were built, moon (and mars) bases would easily be built, almost as an afterthought. ("Oh yeah, I guess it is easy to do this now...") Currently, all of our space vehicles are also built to withstand atmospheric exit & entry. With a space elevator, we could afford to have elevator -> moon or earth-elevator -> mars-moon/station transports that would be much easier to build. If there is any foolish government project I am willing to put my tax dollars into, it's this.