Reply #2: NASA is pretty much finished. [View All]

At least now that civilians have been able to make it up in space. (The X-Prize, I was following that thing back when it was first created and seemed like a far off, distant goal)

NASA isn't willing to take the risks anymore. Space travel is dangerous. There are never guarentees that you'll come home.

In the time of Christopher Columbus, sailing that far was dangerous. No guarantee you'd come home.

The difference between NASA and the civilian space agencies all over the world is that civilans want to explore and are willing to take that risk. No amount of death would ever stop them.

The first people on Mars will not be government funded. It will probably be civilians.