Part of this problem goes back to the beknighted Seventies. Instead of a follow-on Mars Mission after the Apollo project, the budgeteers took over and gave us the Shuttle. Shuttle was supposed to be a means to an end, not an end in itself. As an aside, an engineer I once knew who graduated from Georgia Tech back in 1980 refused to even consider NASA, as he had heard the stories in the engineering community about the cutbacks and personnel layoffs that had occured after Apollo shut down.
Now we find only one alternative: the Orbital Space Plane concept, which will require some dandy engineering to get off the ground. For the time being, the remaining three shuttles will have to be watched and babied like hawks, and perhaps a polymer hardcoat put over the tiles as protection. Literally, it's all we've got. That 65 billion dollar ISS has to be serviced, after all.
Now, if someone would come up with the idea of using the ISS as a living quarter for construction crews who could assemble an interplanetary, nuclear powered Mars transit vehicle, then they'd be talking sense. A Mars transit vehicle is something you want built in orbit, not on the ground.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
The fire has gone out of the program and a spark is lacking. The public thinks spaceflight is neat and all that but shuttle flights to the ISS or low earth orbit to go around and around without really going anywhere don't seem to ignite any excitement among the sheeple.
Everyone knows that the spur for Apollo was beating the Soviets to the moon. We did that and then what? Its like a runner winning a race and then standing around with his hands at his sides, wondering what happened.
During and for a short time after Apollo's heyday people in high places talked about flying to Mars. They were serious. Today you hear chit-chat about it but nothing really being talked about at the levels where something really could happen. Its all just robots and satellite cell phones and GPS.
The whole structure of spaceflight and space research is creaking and crumbling. We don't have a realistic plan to get back to the moon, or what to do if we got there, which would be a good thing to do first. Nobody talks seriously about mounting a Mars mission anymore. I'll never live to see it, I'm pretty sure. We don't have even a clue as to how to do extra-solar missions.
Its going to take someone with a real vision and the drive and commitment to see it through, push it until it gives, to turn this around. Given the present breed of political leaders (e.g., a bean counter heading up NASA), businessmen, and scientists, I'm not optimistic (I'll include myself in that third group since I opened my big mouth).