<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>The ISS is certainly a major achievement which has shown the world we can live and work in space. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Agreed. People forever go on about how rubbish they think ISS but I think that’s nonsense, for a variety of reasons including the lack of resulting science. But I think ISS has achieved much in terms helping the world achieve something that would be very difficult for one country alone.<br /><br />If the US and NASA want to fire a one-shot, minimalist mission back to the moon by themselves to show off, fine. But its simple logic that if the US wants to see a build an effective moonbase with the capability to fast track lunar science, astronomy and ISRU then an INTERNATIONAL MOONBASE is the way to go! Pooling all of our resources, experiences will speed things up, especially because we are not starting from scratch ie. US, RSA, ESA etc are now experienced space construction workers!<br />Things may actually work best as is, in other words a country should do what it can by itself what it can and when it can’t (eg ISS) they go international. So the US going back to the Moon to re-straighten the flags in 2015-2020 maybe a necessity (with Russian/ESA doing the same)…once we’ve restored the capability to return, perhaps the international collaboration will be an attractive option for fast-tracking lunar base construction.<br />