My personal hope is that there is NEVER a paxpayer funded man woalking around the surface of Mars. There isn't anything there worth the price of getting there, let alone getting there and back.
If done right, just the effort alone (like the 60’s moon race) will provide technological spin-offs that will affect every area of our lives plus, propel the US technologically beyond the envelope.
Earth-based space stations provide a lot of knowledge but if it is not used as a “jumping off point”, then what is it's purpose? We need to push forward, not remain in one place.
We are stagnant and that equals, slow death.
I respectfully disagree. Space exploration represents exactly the type of things government should be doing instead of the nanny state crap. I consider it long term R&D and insurance for survival of mankind itself. The private sector can help as well but a primary role of government is to defend the country itself even if it includes defense and strategies for surviving attacks from giant rocks.
They’re basically trying to prove that earth is not a special creation possible only through supernatural means.
That’s the root of it.
I have a feeling you are neither an engineer, a scientist or a highly skilled technologist. Tell me I am wrong. For those of us who have worked in these fields, the space program has yielded scientific breakthroughs which could never have been achieved otherwise.
I would rather have tax payer money spent on advancing technology than more food stamps for a population whose biggest health problem is obesity.