re: Seriously, thanks for posting that article. - Some thoughts:
"...a lot of the public enthusiasm for space colonization subsided. Some people stuck with it, and became bitter. Many simply gave up."
Sorry to disagree, but I think that politics did and DOES have a great deal to do with it.
During the Clinton years, we had to live up to much with much less for instance.
Thank goodness for JPL and their robotics missions to Mars and beyond (New Horizons) to save the day.
However, to make a long story short. Those thinkers and technology have managed to catch up with the politics at hand to make the whole thing work.
As always (thankfully).