[jyl]

What do you mean, could we build the Saturn V, Apollo craft, LEM, and go to the moon today, assuming it hadn't been done in the 1960s?

Technologically, of course it could be done. All of the science and technology that went into Apollo is still available, and much of it has been greatly improved.

The cost would be high, but relative to some other expenditures, not staggering. NASA's entire annual budget ($17BN) is about 1/4 the cost of the F22 program ($65BN). The projected budget for Project Constellation ($35BN) is 1/2 the F22's cost. So since we can afford the F22, we can afford to go to the moon.

The question is, would we today consider it high enough "priority" to go to the moon?

I think "yes" - if you assume the moon had never been visited before, the drive to be first to get there would be just as strong as it was in 1960.

The only reason there is, shall we say, lukewarm enthusiasm about returning to the moon today and/or going to Mars is precisely because we have already been to the moon, multiple times, and people don't necessarily see that such big benefits came from it. BTDT and so on.