In response to a thread below, these are the priorities of the US and you can forget dreaming about space travels.  The money isn’t there as long as we insist upon that defense budget.  The priorities are set.  I realize this isn’t supposed to be political, and I’m blaming both parties equally, and simply saying the US has it’s priorities and you can stop dreaming about “harvesting” anything from farther away than Peoria.

“The F-22 is the single most expensive fighter jet in history at a total acquisition cost of an estimated $79 billion for 187 planes, meaning each plane costs approximately $420 million. Estimates for the Eurofighter Typhoon – the premier fighter for several allied countries including the U.K., Germany and Italy – put that plane at just under $200 million each, according to an April 2011 report by England’s Public Accounts Committee.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/07/f-22-fighter-loses-79-billion-advantage-in-dogfights-report/