The voters in the US support space exploration, AS LONG AS THERE'S A ROBUST ECONOMY AND TAX REVENUE FLOW TO PAY FOR IT.

At the current time, AS LONG AS EVERYTHING ELSE IS TAKEN CARE OF FIRST, then people would like to see THE REST of their tax money used to pay for it. Exploration for exploration's sake is not that high of a priority with them.

THAT'S WHY THE CONGRESSIONAL VOTES HAVE GONE THE WAY THEY HAVE SINCE 1965, and that's why the NASA budget level remains pretty much immobile.

Now I'm going to tell you why these "polls" are not indicative of desires.

THE funny thing about these "polls" is that they never ask people what they'd actually like to see that space money spent on.

Priority 1 is that case would be trying to find extra-terrestrial intelligence.

(By the way, over half the voting public thinks that the government is hiding what it knows about UFOs, and about .5 [1/2]% think that both Bush and Kerry are active participants in "the coverup".)

(A second by the way is that under current NASA governing legislation, IT IS ILLEGAL FOR NASA TO SEARCH FOR OR TO HELP SEARCH FOR EXTRA TERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE. That needs to be changed.)

Priority 2 is keeping them from going the way of the dinosaur via impact.

Priority 3 would be figuring out how the weather works.

Priority 4 is manned Mars flight, and no higher. They like rovers, and want more of them, but as more images of Mars come in, their desire to send people there drops and drops. Mars is simply not Earth-like, and therefore not easliy settled.

You might notice that returning to the Moon does not make the priority list at all - a matter of fact, the only way to justify it is that it's the best way by far to take care of Priority 1 and Priority 2. Another matter of fact is that a space station does not make the priority list, except in terms of developing technologies for manned space flight.

My final "by the way" is that in contrast to the Mars Nuts, the general public is real happy with international programs, and really like the idea of the different nations working together peacefully in space.

In closing, I point out that the reason these "polls" are constructed the way they are is because those who pay for them want those answers.

It's kind of like the election, where they ask if you want Bush or Kerry, when what you really want is a system that would give you some better candidates.

ep