Nothing but unbridled pessimism.<p>The march of progress hasn't stopped just because we don't launch Saturn Vs anymore. It has progressed rapidly on other fronts. Anyone looking at the Apollo program should realize that it was a stunt more than a true exploratory endeavor. In the past 40 years we've been doing the real work of increasing our understanding of everything in the solar system. If I had to choose between a manned mars mission and knowing about Eris/Sedna, extra-solar planets, surface of Titan etc... I know which one I'd pick. Why not both? No thanks, I'd still rather have the JWST instead.<p>The author describes the unique dangers of space, but it's not that different than other frontiers. He describes it's uniqueness:<p><i>People have survived for months on the open ocean, subsisting on the elements around them. Running out of air is not a problem. Fresh water falls out of the sky as rain. Critters that are attracted to the cover of your life raft provide a source of food. I recommend the book 117 Days Adrift for a gripping account of a British couple who survived such an ordeal. Sometimes edible fish would actually jump into their dinghy. By contrast, a hamburger has never slammed into the side of the space shuttle in orbit</i><p>True, but hamburgers don't slam into the side of an airplane either. Yet we don't starve to death in airplanes despite many airlines attempts.<p>The voyages of Columbus were all expensive stunts and economic failures. It was 100 years before practical use of the new world was possible. Once the cost of a colony could be reasonably amortized and profitable they sprung up everywhere. Better technology made this possible, not larger government trips to farther off destinations.<p>Space is already being commercialized. We aren't mining asteroids yet, but we are seeing private launch companies sending private satellites into orbit. The costs of launches are going down, and the value in space is going up. We've already passed the break even point for some applications.