Mr. Araki said buildup of military and space during Cold War also resulted in significant benefits to the consumer and commercial markets for the US. Same technology developed for missiles and spacecraft like Corona satellites were also used to develop consumer products. But not for Soviet Union because of their way of government and doing business.

“-it was cancelled because nobody has the clout (nevermind the courage) to lead on this issue-”

The only way we made it to the Moon was fear of the communists taking over the world. Only fear trumps greed. If we want anything to happen I think we need to find another enemy and the only ones that scare me are outbreaks and impacts. Space just happens to be the answer to both these threats.

Sure, Elon Musk is putting forward big plans for space exploration, as is Richard Branson, as are several different parts of NASA, as are several different members of Congress, as are several different agencies in the executive branch. And they are working with great optimism and gusto, yes they are. But is there anyone COORDINATING all this brainstorming, planning, and optimism? No.

And do we, the American people, trust anyone in government–or even business!– to do any coordination? Hells, SEVEN hells, no. We’ve seen how this plays out via the Constellation program–it was cancelled partly as revenge against the Bush administration, partly as a result of bureaucratic infighting in NASA, partly as a result of “boondoggle”-hating anti-manned-space “deficit hawks” in Congress, with the bad economy as a convenient excuse. But in the bigger picture, it was cancelled because nobody has the clout (nevermind the courage) to lead on this issue–and because the American people, bless their hearts, are not good followers right now. They don’t want to be “led”, on space or anything else. They want to bunker up, and pray to God that everyone, up to and including China, Russia, and possibly Mother Nature Herself, leaves them alone.

Until we stop being a risk-averse body politic, and deserve good leadership, we will not get it. We will stay the heck off the moon and Mars, and we will continue to act like an emotionally scarred nation–paranoid and averse to do anything truly bold, while kvetching all the while about all the “bad leadership” that we get, but truly deserve.

P.S. And anyone tempted to blame Constellation’s closure on “ideologues” in the current administration who “hate American exceptionalism”–well, to be blunt, it’s a nice fantasy, but it’s projection at best. If there’s anyone the current administration “hates” on the issue of space, it’s people who make big plans, and then fail to act on them or fund them competently–like some other administrations we could name.

Which makes them hypocrites to an extent, but so these things go.

Bob Clark

If it was “Quest for Life”, funding for Europa and Titan would be far above Mars funding.

Supposably that commission was mostly planetary scientists that had no interest in building lunar outposts, fuel depots, etc. I forget the details from the book. Moon Rush has lots of interesting details on space history of what worked and what didn’t and why.

I remember watching the 2009 Augustine Commission II hearings on NASA TV and Dennis speaking during commentaries of which he said, “20 years ago I was in front this commission as an angry young student.” He then said something of like, “I’m back to say it is important of what this commission presents because it will determine what our plans are for next 20 years.” I recorded the video, need to watch it again (maybe post it to youtube).

http://blogs.airspacemag.com/moon/2013/09/the-quest-for-life-elsewhere-rationale-for-a-space-program/

Why should the public in general care about life on Mars?
Scientifically I see how it’s interesting.
I find the “black smokers” on our the ocean, very interesting.
Example:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageseas/deep-side-smokers.html

few scientific discoveries match the significant of this discovery in the 20th century.
Let me make short list: Impactors hitting Earth in present age, plate tectonic theory being accepted as true. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge confirmed: “The existence of such a ridge was confirmed by sonar in 1925”, which exploration resulted in giving weight to theory of plate tectonic. Black smoker, dispelling myth that life was non-existent in deep oceans, and allows to imagine there could be life on Mars or Europa. The discovery life starting at around 3.8 billion ago, on planet Earth. Of course understanding nature of impactors related to the Moon, allowed the theory of extinction of age Dinosaurs being caused impactor, of which impact crater in in Mexico.
Such things this are profoundly important in terms of science.
But other than interesting trivia, does public care about them?

No.
And they should not care too much about them. They have far more important thing to concern themselves with.
So I believe the public would wrong if it decided that black smokers were so important the tens of billion of dollars per year should spent understanding them. And I think black smoker are far more important to the public than any alien life one could find on Mars.