Me, I'm for the romance and excitement of exploration. Lead with bots and follow with babes. But then, I'm not politically obsessed with cost at the expense of all other aspects. Note how the press ALWAYS without exception writes like the following "The 3 billion dollar Cassini mission" etc. ad nauseum.

No Buck Rogers, no Bucks.

Americans by and large as a culture are far more adventurous and can do than other staid yesterday cultures, e.g. SpaceShipOne, private funds by goal oriented Americans about to outdo all but 3 nations in the world. And yes, hats off to those exceptional Canadians, Euros and others who are also on this X-prize quest.