There is another reason why their rockets were bigger: they launched from higher latitude. Their limitations made them smarter in how they used their technology. They seemed to avoid programs that had no ultimate utility, like putting a man on the moon. Instead they built the first space station and began experiments growing food and on human physiology in zero-gee.

I think the general public is mostly composed of armchair quarterbacks, more interested in "to know" rather than "to go". That's why Hubble, GPS, and satellite TV were so much more popular than Apollo. That's why the Space Station is so unpopular, because it hasn't done anything to expand people's understanding of the universe. If people take any interest in a manned Mars mission it will probably be because they like watching disasters on TV, like tornados, hurricanes, things blowing up, that sort of thing.