[Porsche-O-Phile]

I believe JFK made his speech challenging us to put a man on the moon in May, 1961; it was accomplished in July, 1969 (a little over 8 years) including one MAJOR setback in the tragic Apollo 1 fire disaster that killed White, Chaffe and Grissom. Do I think we could get to the moon again in 10 years? Sure. Question of time, resources and money - and finding manufacturers to construct the space vehicle (good luck - everything's in frikkin' China or Taiwan now).

If every little nuance of government procurments/contracting was followed to the letter as it exists today and no adjustment was made for today's economy, it probably would never happen from a practical standpoint, but if somehow one could magically create the resolve and determination that existed in the 1960s - sure, I have no doubt we could get it done. Probably not with a Saturn V either - something much more modern, albeit built on some legacy technologies.

We COULD do it, given the current economy, it's questionable whether we SHOULD and whether it would ever make sense. I also don't see what it would accomplish - we've already been there. BTDT. What would we be proving exactly? If we really want to challenge ourselves to the level we did in the 1960s, we should try to get a crew to Mars and back by 2019. THAT would be a monumental challenge of the scale the 1960s early space program faced - with comparable risks and obstacles "indexed for inflation" so to speak...