That's a large part of my point. It's not that NASA's dropping the ball on their own, just that they aren't doing enough. That's why I want to see a push in space tourism to lead private industry to take over exploration. So long as you're looking at the long term, the money will come and there are more than a few mega rich that it won't bankrupt in the mean time.

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During the journey we commonly forget its goal. Almost every profession is chosen as a means to an end but continued as an end in itself. Forgetting our objectives is the most frequent act of stupidity.
-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Wanderer and his Shadow

All good socialists have villas in Southern France. That's not the point.
-Eurosocialist