re: Being rabidly pro-space but having seen it all before
I see space energy as the best hope for getting the public to fund space efforts. The hundreds of billions we are giving to OPEC every year would build a lot of PowerSats.
Let's face it, sending humans to Mars is basically seen as another Bush joke outside the rabid space advocate community while folks like Burt Rutan are taking care of building a 2nd generation shuttle without NASA's help.