[Fitzcarraldo]

I think NASA needs to break out of a vicious cycle and propose something radical like terraforming Venus or building a space elevator.

[RadioAstronomer]

I think NASA needs to break out of a vicious cycle and propose something radical like terraforming Venus or building a space elevator.

Agreed. However, lack of funding will kill anything but small stuff anyway. Did you see they cancled the Prometheus nuclear propulsion studies?

[solitas]

I think NASA needs to break out of a vicious cycle and propose something radical like terraforming Venus or building a space elevator.

NASA can't even reliably (and confidently) loft-up the 150-odd miles to feed the 'space station'. How are they going to have a permanent, habitable satellite 22,300-some odd miles out in synchronous equatorial orbit to start extruding a cable to the ground made up of material that hasn't been proven yet with a technique that hasn't been developed yet?