[marron]

When they landed on the moon, I would have predicted that we would have been on Mars by now. It annoys me that almost 40 years later we're still talking about it. And still not doing much about it.

The rover is great, but we did something similar back in the seventies, we've already got pictures from the surface. We should have had a permanent moon base for 20 years now and an ISS on the surface of Mars for 10 years now.

Meanwhile the country drifts and cultural pessimism sets in. The US is what it is because of its frontier. Take away the frontier and we're just Belgians, and whiny ones at that.

[ambrose]

I share your deep annoyance over the 30 years wasted since the moon mission.

Yes, it is sci-fi, but take a look at "2001" and see where many envisioned us to now be during the 60s. Not even remotely close.

[JSteff]

"We should have had a permanent moon base for 20 years now and an ISS on the surface of Mars for 10 years now."

Agreed on the moon, not on Mars. Mars is a fairly worthless place to colonize. I think it should have been a permanent moon base(s!) and active mining of asteroids.

That possibly yields the best chance for success as it has the highest profit potential which is absolutely critical for private involvement. Private involvement is what made our ancestors settle the west.

Money was and will need to be a huge driving force to our successful exploration and colonization in space. Government, (Lewis and Clark and others..) investigated and mapped, private companies followed and that drove settlement.