the most likely way we will really ramp up the space program is to find something out there of great and immediate financial value. Government and the private sector have limited goals, and they are easily frustrated by difficulty and failure. The best chance of finding that "something" is now underway, the search for life in space, particularly in the solar system. It's no coincidence that there is such an enormous interest right now in extraterrestrial life, or in extremophiles here on earth that can serve as a model for it. Science missions are more than just the provincial research interests of specialists, they are a net deliberately cast out to look for treasure.

An alien biochemistry would not only provide, by comparison, an enormous insight into our own, but a potential for spectacular new industrial development. That translates into something both government and business understand: cold hard cash. The best chance of achieving that single scientific breakthrough which will lead to massive investment in manned spaceflight is underway right now: robotic bioprobes to Mars, unmanned missions to search for life in the satellites of the outer planets, and even surveys of comets and other pre-biological environments.

It is my opinion that the ultimate goal we all seek, a vigorous manned program, is best achieved by visiting as many worlds as possible in as short a time as possible. The space program will blossom from the microbes in a handful of alien soil. If there is no life in the solar system, I think all bets are off.