[chimera]

I think its a programmatic issue. With the decision to focus on getting back to the moon, and eventually Mars (with a human presence, of course), some of these more "exotic" missions are being deferred (canceled).

Not that those program decisions are necessarily bad. I just wish this country had the vision and guts (like it used to) to do both. My guess is that some limited technology development will continue for awhile, anyway, but without a high profile mission as the driver, those efforts are usually limited and often fizzle out (like the SP-100 effort back in the 1980s).

[Waterleak]

To hell with all this space exploration stuff. Where's my flying car?!

[Arkie2]

I don't know how you feel about the manned missions but for the most part I think they're a colossal waste of resources. I didn't always feel that way. The ISS and the Shuttle problems changed my mind.

Unmanned exploration returns so much more knowledge than manned spaceflight that it's criminal to put funding into the manned moon/mars mission. Just my humble opinion.