I think you're talking a somewhat Star Trekkian topic, Ara! Nothing wrong with that, and I think once our society gains a better grasp of how economics really works, we may yet get there.

As for the economics of DIRECTv3, they claim it's much better than Ares, while some naysayers here have said otherwise, but without having said how, otherwise.

So how, otherwise?

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If I set the budget, we'd have Ares and more. Unfortunately, I don't set the budget, and Ares is just too expensive and too far out for us to accomplish our goals within the budget we were given.

If we halt the ISS, all versions of Ares, and transport Orion and Altair aboard DIRECTv3's Jupiter family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles, we just might make it back to the Moon by 2020.