Jacob Samorodin said:

"The general public has a passing interest in science discoveries and space travel, but by no stretch of the imagination are most 200,000,000 US taxpayers hardcore space travel enthusiasts or science fans...They love the beautiful Cassini and HST images posted on the net or on CNN, and they get excited [for a time] about possible life found in a martian meteorites [1996], but such interest among taxpayers quickly fades. The general public is fickle..."

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This is the old problem with space exploration. John Q. Public finds space exploration very entertaining but doesn't want to pay for it. Space exploration's roots goes back to the science fiction of Jules Verne and the pulp fiction of the 1930-1950s. However now, science fiction is more the enemy of space exploration than its friend. People want to be entertained. For $100 million, George Lucas can (or could) provide way more entertainment value with CGI baloney than NASA flying real hardware.

The history of American public funding for aeronautics is a very mixed bag. The Wright brothers flew the first airplane but initially the American airplane industry could not get off the ground (development costs were too high). The Europeans immediately saw the military value of airplanes and started pouring money into government research labs. Eventually the American government saw its national security in jeopardy and created NACA (National Advisory Committte for Aeronautics). It was NACA that really got the american aerospace industry bootstrapped. The American Robbert Goddard invented the modern rocket but he could get no where with the technology in the United States. It was German interest that elevated Goddard's designs from mere playthings to usable ballistic missiles. After World War II, most of the German science and aeronautical engineering infrastructure was transplanted to the United States under "Project Paperclip". That brain transplant is what put the American scientific research and aerospace industry into hyperdrive. That industry would have again withered on the vine if it wasn't for the Soviet Union and the billions they poured into Space Exploration. They embarrassed the United States with Sputnik and Vostok. If it hadn't been for the Soviet Union, we would still be screwing around with German V-2 derivative ballistic missiles. It's no real surprise that the American aerospace industry collapsed shortly after the fall of the Soviet Empire. We're too focused on short term profit and instant gratification. If we don't snap out of it, I fear the Chinese as a newly reforged economic power will crush us.

Gary