The original point was competing with the Soviets and generating national pride, sure. The point now would be to get practice with the harder problems of surviv

The original point was competing with the Soviets and generating national pride, sure. The point now would be to get practice with the harder problems of survival in space, as a trial run for the marathon that is going to Mars. Every time we as a nation do something that seems audacious, we raise the morale of the nation and energize the populace to work harder on pretty much everything else. We could certainly use a shot of national pride to the arm after the events of the past decade...