Replies

we have lost the Space Shuttle ... we have not been to Mars or even back to the Moon.
So what? What the hell did we the taxpayer get for hundreds of billions of dollars spent during the 30 years of space shuttle mission?
You want to go to Mars - you pay for it. Like the moon, there's nothing there.

You want to go to Mars - you pay for it. Like the moon, there's nothing there.

The reason you know so much about the solar system and it's planets is because of those billions spent. Otherwise we would still be thinking there were canals on Mars etc. Someone with imagination will find a reason to go to Mars and make it pay. Maybe they will go beyond and mine the asteroid belt and use Mars and it's moons as a mining base/industrial base. The age of big government space projects with all the attendant politics and waste may be over, but there are plenty of ways to use space resources for the free market.