By the mid-seventies, Nasa was run by astronauts wanting rides, not by scientists exploring space. After the Challenger disaster, astronauts resigned quickly because their hopes of a ride were gone for the foreseeable future. We will see something similar shortly.
If Nasa can't get back to focusing on exploration, instead of providing ponies for jockeys, I say shut it down completely.
Robotics have emerged by leaps and bounds--little cameras will make openheart surgery no longer open heart. If cameras can crawl around your body, why can't they crawl around Mars? We could send them to Mars by the dozens for what it costs to send John Glenn on a sentimental Shuttle journey. If we got these out of work IT engineers reeducated, the technical problems could be solved. THINK of the spinoffs! Right now, the ISS does experiments about the level of a high school science fair. Maintain the ISS as a future docking point for sending masses of unmanned craft into the solar system. So what if most of them fail? It'll still be cheaper than these pointless joyrides.
I disagree with that statement. If they were in it for the pure science of space flight, they wouldn't fight independent private sector efforts in this country in space travel technology. NASA wants to control everything about America's space technology because they fear loss of power and jobs. They want to protect and control turf to protect and control their federal budget dollars. It's the classic government bureaucracy.
You've obviously never met, talked to, or worked with the professionals that man the astronaut corp. Your comments with regard to good, decent human beings whom you have never met are incorrect, rude, and especially today, insensitive and very much out of line.
NASA has always had a professional 'tension' between its manned and unmanned side. This occurs in any organization that has competing interests for resources. In addition, like it or not, NASA is a political tool, used by congress and administrations as a carrot to other nations, incentive to join us in partnerships, and a symbol of national power. Scientifically, a robotic mission to mars is worth a lot. Politically, manned presence in space is worth 100 robotic missions.