Top 10 Spin-offs from Lunar Exploration

1. We've been there. No, really. Six times.

2. It's getting farther away. 3.82 ± 0.07 centimeters each year. We can measure it using lasers beamed from Earth to mirrors left by the Apollo astronauts (see point 1). This means Earth's days are getting longer ... by a second or so every century.

3. Meteorites from Earth's early days might be found there. If you happen to like rocks, this is cool because Earth doesn't have its earliest rocks; we recycle and erode our crust.

4. The Moon does not protect Earth from asteroids. It's tiny and it's far away. Time to invest in a different strategy.

5. Space-faring civilizations do not have outposts there. How do we know? Because space-faring civilizations would be bright enough to pick some more pleasant place to dwell ... like Earth. Ask your best friend if he/she is from another space-faring civilization ... and sleep well tonight...