America needs an ‘all of the above’ space strategy

America’s space community is having a phony and destructive debate about whether the U.S. should continue its current focus on returning astronauts to the Moon or switch to Mars.  The chattering class is accusing Elon Musk of distracting President Donald Trump from the Moon with a riskier path of going directly to Mars. Ultimately, they want to provoke a fratricidal fight between two parts of the Trump coalition.  

This distraction is a cynical ploy to delay needed reforms and allow...