[JSteff]

"Terminate NASA, and start fresh in a year or two; after they have sorted all of the Federal driftwood out of the system."

Yeah, turn it over to private enterprise. Burt Ruttan and Paul Allen spent far less than nasa and got a man in space.

They got further than nasa did on it's first million. Where would they go if they had nasa's budget?

[Hodar]

Where would they go if they had nasa's budget?

IF this happened, not only would we have a Mars base, we'd be much, much further along technologically than we are now. Consider, when NASA was first started, and NASA not only had the funds to hire the best, but the best and brightest competed for each spot - our technology advantage shot ahead of the world. We've been coasting ever since Apollo.