0.1% the budget because they didn't have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to research and build the last 60 years of space technology - rolling progress forward one painful, costly mistake at a time - to do it. Hardly seems reasonable to use such a comparison or make such a point given the actual context.

> 0.1% the budget because they didn't have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to research and build the last 60 years of space technology

That sort of argument isn't very honest or reasonable. Would you believe it would make any sense to point out the centuries of R&D work and countless money spent on it prior to the creation of the US space program to insinuate that the US freeloaded its way into one of mankind's most important achievements?

The US and China could (and have) put a probe on the moon for far less than $100B. $100MM is still a great accomplishment, but let's not exaggerate it.