Mining the Moon

The only way that I could see NASA justifying their budget is if they began to produce some useful results. If they found a resource that we could use on the moon, or even Mars, then I would be all for them building space elevators and spending millions of dollars on old rockets and space shuttles. Even if they built a permanent base on the moon I think that would help to caputre the imagination of a country that hasn't noticed them accomplish anything significant for the last 36 years.