Going Back to the Moon Would Enrich Science

Re “NASA in Wonderland,” editorial, Dec. 15: Returning men to the moon is “scientifically poor”? When you consider that the plug was pulled just as it became possible for astronauts to stay there long enough to do any but the most trivial of research, we don’t know anything of the sort. We have no idea what further exploration will teach us; we’ve barely started.

At the moment, I’d say the first priority is to replace the aging stopgap shuttle fleet with the more modern surface-to-orbit craft currently under development. And obviously we want to continue with exploration of the solar system as a whole by robot probes that don’t have to come back, let alone be fed and given oxygen. But if we ever want to know all about our nearest neighbor, there is no substitute for going there.

Kay Shapero

Los Angeles