jacob navia wrote:
At that time, other nations will be travelling to the moon.

I seriusly doubt they have the will, or the budget, to do that.
Note that Russia hasn't landed anyone there yet, which they certainly
could have done by now if they had wanted to.

This is not the end of manned space exploration, just the
end of american manned space exploration.

We can discuss this again in 2015.

P.S. I remember all those republicans crying in this newsgroup
all these years:

DESTROY NASA!
JUST PRIVATE COMPANIES SHOULD DO SPACE TRAVEL

They are well served now.

Rand Simberg has a article on the irony of all this:
http://www.transterrestrial.com/?p=24483

Pat