[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.

[JSteff]

That is why I said that. Private enterprise founded America, gave us the refrigerator, the car, the home computer (and CPU's much faster than the government ever did), body armor, airplanes, peanut butter, and soybean oil.. in short almost everything.

All were achieved at costs far less than the government could have done. (Except nuclear power which would have cost less if P.E. had done it.)