Julie, the soapbox is yours just as much as mine! By joining this list, you are encouraged to express yourself. The NASA projects are actually a LONG time in coming. When I was young, most scientifically-literate folks were convinced that we would have already had manned missions to Mars, and a huge lunar presence by the turn of the century. The shuttle was supposed to be just a launch vehicle for numerous, more grand projects, yet it took on a life of it's own and became an end unto itself, not a means to an end. It started as the "single-stage-to-orbit, reusable" program. What we ended up with is a compromise and somewhat removed from the original concept (which made more sense than what we have).
From my perspective, the manned space program has been somewhat of a dud since the Apollo program- at least far, far removed from what was talked about back in the sixties. What stalled things out, of course, is the massive price tag for manned space exploration. No-one anticipated back then just how expensive things would get. A non-science-minded electorate has never been in the mood to spend the dollars required to take us to the stars as fast as some of us would like. And it's too bad because the NASA budget has typically always been a mere single-digit percentage of what the military gets. A drop in the bucket.
Privatization of space travel, more specifically, making space travel profitable, is what is needed to accellerate the pace. But again, I don't have much hope for seeing that Lunar Hilton in my lifetime. :o( I did say that outreach was worthwhile- my caveat was that it's a painfully slow process, and wasn't a race to educate the masses "before it's too late", as Gary posted. Light pollution was one convenient example- out of many I could have chosen from. BTW, yes, there are still people who think the earth is flat, the sun revolves around the earth, the earth is hotter in summer because it's closer to the sun, etc...and many of them have higher educations. We haven't come as far in 400 years as you think we have. On 7/30/07, Julie Chorley <jchorley@gmail.com> wrote:
Eeep! Sorry, I stole the soapbox there. I promise not to do it again!