sentences:  Columnist Gregg Easterbrook, who has reported on the space program for decades, has criticized the plans as a poor use of resources.He writes that
  
  Although, of course, the base could yield a great discovery, its scientific value is likely to be small while its price is extremely high.Worse, moon-base nonsense may for decades divert NASA resources from the agency's legitimate missions, draining funding from real needs in order to construct human history's silliest white elephant.