[untenured]

You are anonymous, or as someone mentioned earlier, pseudonymous on FR.

Hey, I plan to be Freepin' in 2030, so ping me. :)

I don't know the first thing about space technology, so if this turns out to be cheaper than the papers think it will be I will be happy to be publicly chastised. But if not, Americans are going to want Granny's medicine a lot more than they are going to want to watch someone land on Mars. And there are going to be a lot more Grannies then than there are now.

[RightWhale]

Someone posted a NASA budget plan chart for the near future, a possible cross section of all possible budgets. A small kick now and then just inflationary growth for the next 15 years. But in 17 years the ISS and the Space Shuttle are zero and manned exploration is tripled. Nearly the same money plus inflation, but a completely re-oriented set of goals. Hard to imagine anybody jacking the budget much higher unless they spot that incoming killer asteroid.