http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl07UfRkPas&feature=player_embedded

The problem with increasing NASA’s budget in this day and age is that 99 cents out of every dollar would be stolen, re-directed, wasted or canceled after two years.

Operational budgets would be bloated with the need to train politically appointed crew members (Saudi Astronauts???) The UN would demand their pound of flesh, commissioners and input onto the mission statement writing team. Different vehicle components would be built in different parts of the country, to satisfy political mandarins, and then special transport aircraft and road transporters with otherwise useless crews needed to unite them with the rest of its body.

NO! Private space industry is just getting started but is the only hope for our species future in space. Their motivation is, quite simply, all the wealth and energy of the universe is out there. There are single asteroids that contain more iron in one piece than has been mined by mankind in its entire history.

More importantly, in the long term, its a frontier and frontiers aren’t only for making your fortune but a place to start over to get away from the cesspool of greed and control that even the United States is sinking into. New ways of living, and of coming together into new societies before the spark of human freedom and spirit is buried under the relentless tendrils of the State.

If we can waste hundreds of billions of tax dollars on wind and solar here on earth, then using the same level of funding and subsidies on space entrepreneurship could actually result in us getting something back that really worth something.

THAT, Mr. Tyson, is MY dream!