I think it was Gordo Cooper who laid blame almost squarely at the feet of Sen. William Proxmire as to why NASA was largely stopped dead in its tracks in the ‘70s when it should’ve pushed on for a manned mission to Mars. We’re decades behind where we should be at today, and “Zero’s Mohammadan Outreach” program shows how truly moribund it is. So much for a guy who claimed to be a Star Trek fan who should’ve been pushing to reinvigorate NASA.
I heard Gene Roddenberry’s widow, Majel Barrett, speak on the subject 20 years ago and she told the crowd to contact their federal elected Reps to fully support and fund NASA and get on with longer-range missions. Who knows, maybe we’ll get Trump on the bandwagon to reinvigorate the old “New Frontier” agenda for space, though with our $20 trillion debt, an almost impossible dream now.
Right now privatized space is our best hope. I just don’t see our government ever getting it’s act together enough to think big ever again. They’re too busy with infighting and social engineering to have any time for little things like vision and leadership anymore.