I really wish the free enterprise space weenies would just quit whining and build us some spaceships. If there is no market incentive for going into space, so be it.

If there is, do it. You can't expect the government to subsidize you forever.

Damn. I've always wanted to say that!

Seriously, I have nothing against free enterprise in space. In fact, I'm all in favor of it, because it seems the government is quickly losing public support for space exploration and I haven't seen enough yet. We need space like we need billion dollar atom smashers and observatory complexes. But there is no short-term profit to be made in space any more than there is in big astronomy or physics projects here. The payoffs are always indirect and in the far future, and you can't patent the Higgs Boson or distant quasars.

But we've covered all this ground before.
If there were gold and platinum bars neatly stacked on the moon's surface, we still couldn't bring them back cheaply enough to make a profit or support a business. Space enterprise is going to have to survive on government contracts or government subsidies for the forseeable future. The government will either be a customer, an investor, or both, until we either find something of great immediate cash value in space to attract private capital, or until some technological breakthrough lowers the costs.