I could see that, but there is a need for further exploration of resources on other planets. Just like on Earth where nations tried to get to the North Pole or Antarctica first to claim it for their nation, space will be the same way.

Personally this shouldn't be a government run venture any more, they should let companies throw there hats in and go for it and of course let them profit from it because they are spending the money and taking the risks.

There has to be some companies out there doing research on space flight and wanting to get people up there soon.

Is letting for-profit entities, such as corporations, really the best idea for the future of space exploration? Should we re-name it to Space Exploitation? Corporations only see things in monetary terms - look at the damage wrought upon this one single planet's ecosystem - often deliberately - for financial gain....and you're saying this is a better idea than letting Nation States loose out there?

Still, the point is taken about the greed and corruption within nation states as well. Perhaps the best we could hope for presently is a coalition of Nations, guided by some kind of ethical, humanistic charter. That way they could keep an eye on each other. With the right individuals in place within this organisation, people of genuine moral and ethical character, only then would I be happy to see humans venture out into space. Space is too precious for us to damage it as we have done to our home world. If no further exploration took place until we've grown up enough to understand how to use it properly then I'd be perfectly happy with that.

In short, we as a species have a lot of growing up to do.

With all the regulations/fines put on companies doing things like mining or oil production it is actually very eco friendly. Unfortunately Stardreamer I don't think the united space agency could ever work, look at NATO that's a joke. The jealousy and mistrust of new discoveries and technologies would cause a lot of friction.

I think a plausible solution would have civilian companies make the spacecraft for NASA and test it and pilot the astronauts to their destination. Forgoing all the red tape the government puts up. No offense to anyone that has a relative that has died on a shuttle mission. But space flight is one of the most dangerous jobs you can have and accidents and failures do happen. I don't think it warrants grounding all missions for a year or more because of an accident.

There is plenty on people that would give almost anything to do a job like that, risks and all. I truly would like to see a united space effort from the largest countries, but I don't think that will ever happen unless there was a Earth ending event coming towards us.

Hehe yeah c0mas if we have everyone in space looking for things/new life we'll give Mother Earth a break from humans for a while.

The 'problem' is the fact that most nations with space programs, including the USA have signed several UN treaties on space exploration, part of these agreements is the fact that no nation can lay claim to interstellar bodies etc, the moon, Mars, any place in space, is property of all of mankind, rather than any individual group.

Of course this will naturally change as our society moves more and more towards corporatocracies and further and further away from democracies.

I doubt that treaty would last long if some country discovered something that would change history or can advance their society in some way.

The moon would be the perfect staging area for exploration further into our galaxy. Wonder if i will actually live to see a person put their foot on Mars? The way the international community is dragging their feet it will take forever if NASA has to float the whole cost.

Money drives everything, and there's just no money in space exploration right now.*

*There has been a company that's planning on catching, then mining asteroids, but I'm unable to recall the name of them.

Elon Musk, the guy behind Tesla Motors, creator of PayPal has his company "Space X"'s rockets being used by NASA now. They want to have private industry build it. It's a bit like "ARGUS" integrating commercially available technology.

But personally I think they are taking it so slow because they don't want to let everyone get the technology. Then we could escape.A more rapid development pace would make space travel more practical for the public.

They want to have a good head start on us at least. Around the time the space shuttle Columbia fell apart in they sky in my neck of the woods, the Air Force managed to start a then-secret program to build unmanned drone space shuttles. A few years ago it came out that it had been going on since 2003, and they had just tested two of them. They can carry about a ton and a half. They want to explore space but they don't seem to want us to go for some reason.