[RightWhale]

It isn't the money so much as the lack of ideas. The US should build ITER, the Superconducting Supercollider, set up a moon base, set up a Mars base, establish private property rights in outer space, build nuclear plants all over the West, build desalinization plants all over the West, and connect all top 100 cities with magnetic levitation trains inside tubes.

This should have been done 20 years ago. Ask your elected representative why this hasn't been done. Watch a confused look flash across his face.

[skinkinthegrass]

It isn't the money so much as the lack of ideas...

Agree w/ all of the above.

[Axenolith]

This should have been done 20 years ago. Ask your elected representative why this hasn't been done. Watch a confused look flash across his face.

The confused face would just be a put-on though. They know exactly why it hasn't been done. Money needs to be spread about in such a way as to insure reelection. There are maybe a dozen guys between the House and Senate that truly work for the best interests of the country.

Spending money on far sighted R&D and exploration things does NOT insure reelection...

[Don Joe]

I'll see your "should have's" and raise you an Orion Project.

McLuhan had it dead to rights: The future ain't what it used to be.

Oh, well. At least it creates an opening for those of us who chose to write SF. There's a market for what should be, and realistically, it will never be met, other than by those selling ink.