I have always been first to want space to be explored rapidly. Curiousity, mainly, and I'd like to have life found elsewhere before I die.

AND, I'm coming to believe that there are more important things. Space is important, but not THE most important, or probably in the top 10.

America went flat out and made it to the Moon. We were going to find out about life elsewhere, about the origins of the Universe, and all manner of fantastic things, as well as be able to puff our chests and brag.

None of the larger promises have been kept, and as for bragging rights, who cares anymore? A stunt, repeated a few times, and discarded as worthless.

The shuttle and ISS have been boondoggles, intended to enrich large corporations and successful at only those things. Everything else could have been done less expensively or was already done. By Mir.

Mars ain't going away soon, though Mankind could through his own folly. Climate warming will change demographics, lifestyles, political alliances, economics. We can't "terraform" anything if we can't keep the Earth we have evolved into fit for habitation.

Unchecked population growth will lead to the same pressures. Wars of aggression, incredibly expensive, will generate hate and responses. There will, over time, be an equal and opposite reaction to Bush's Follies. And America as a nation will pay, as the funder of Bush and Cheney.

Space should be ranked somewhere below cancer, poverty and hunger as a research concern. Somewhere below repairing the US infrastructure. I read that US bridges alone will take about $500 billion, about a quarter of the cost of the Iraq adventure. An enormous sum, and for that we'd get good bridges. Neither space nor aggression should be a priority above health care for citizens.

As for space exploration saving mankind from extinction, bullshit. If extinction happens before the problems Man has brought to Earth have been fixed, the species doesn't deserve to continue.

Arf

Space will be there, and machines are getting better and better at what they can do under Man's guidance.