And Analog said it well, too.

There are windows of opportunity for developing in certain directions, and sometimes they are missed. The cost can be painfully high when they are.

Economics and technology are not, in my opinion, the greatest obstacles to spaceflight. Politics are.

All that only emphasizes the need for those in a position to do something...to do something. People may dislike Zubrin, may disagree with his ideas and principles, but he has the spotlight on him and has been trying to do something while he's in it. That, at least, is something. He is someone who is following your advice, fighting for dreams of space in the name of a future that may not come to pass. And he's not alone.

Apollo was sheer politics. Politics are rarely about shining ideals, high aspirations, or brilliant ideas. And the politics behind Apollo were just as petty and stupid as the politics behind other government projects and priorities. But in this case, politics got men to the Moon.

Will it happen again? We decry how politics continually hamstrings routine spaceflight, and it does. But without politics, there wouldn't be spaceflight at all.

NMD may be today's version of the politics that decades ago birthed Apollo. I personally disagree with the rationale offered in support of NMD, but this doesn't stop me from recognizing the obvious. NMD may provide the pretext for developing more technologies and resources aimed at getting us into space.

Politics is the great obstacle. But it is also the great enabler. It is the fly in the ointment, but at the same time it can be the ointment.

No, Mars will not be happening anytime soon