[Hodar]

This would be absolutely fantastic. The technology advances we gained from Mercury, Gemini and Apollo far surpassed the costs of the programs. NASA even has a magazine entitled Spinoff that not only lists the technology that has been turned over to commercial industries, it mentions several alternative uses for the various technologies.

Advancements in MRI, semiconductors, software, satellites, computers, remote sensing, weather prediction, cancer treatment would never have come about as they have, if it had not been for NASA.

[John H K]

Uh....

To a great degree it's NASA propganda and must be taken with a huge boulder of salt.

Also, ask most space scientist if they want manned missions ANYWHERE and the answer is a resounding "no."

The cost of life support is so high and the ability of computers and robots so great now that there really isn't a practical reasons to have humans in space.

I'd support a manned Mars mission, myself, but I'd consider men back to the moon a total waste of time. And I'd kill the %)$#)!@!@# Space Station. The mind reels at the sort of great probes we could be sending to the planets if we didn't have to fart money away on that boondoggle.

[somemoreequalthanothers]

Are you sure you want to list "weather prediction" as being something successful?