In article ,
says...
99% percent of the taxpayers, and the same percentage of s.s.* posters
wouldn't recognize space exploration if it bit them on the butt. They
confuse the stunts NASA has contrived to date with exploring. (Hint:
NASA has done very, very little exploring.)
hmmm.... not just "little exploring", or even "very little exploring",
but "very, very little exploring". On the other hand, without doing too
much research:

1959+: X-15 program. Exploring high speed/high altitude flying.

1959: early Explorers discover the Van Allen belts.

1960: Echo, first commsat.

1962: Mariner explores Venus.

1964: the latter Ranger flights explore the moon.

1964: Mariner Mars flyby.

1965-1966: Gemini explores long duration space flights, orbital rendez-
vous.

1966+: Surveyor explores the lunar surface.

1966+: Lunar Orbiter explores the entire Moon.

1968-1972: Apollo lunar missions.

1969: Mariner Mars flyby.

1972: Pioneer flybys of the outer planets.

1973: Skylab. Exploring long-term flight, solar research.

1973: Mariner flyby Mercury/Venus.

1975: Viking. Mars surface exploration.

1977+: Voyager explores the outer planets.

1978: Pioneer Venus

1989; Magellan Venus

1989: Galileo Jupiter

1990: Hubble Space Telescope

1990: Ulysses Jupiter and solar orbiter

1966: Mars Global Surveyor

1997: Cassini Saturn

2003+: Spirit and Opportunity on Mars

2004: Messenger Mercury


Admittedly a lot of NASA current budget goes into ISS/Shuttle, which
does very little if any exploring beyond what was done with Skylab and
MIR. Admittedly, things like Apollo-Soyuz had more to do with
international politics than exploration. Admittedly there were a fair
number of flights focused more on engineering issues than exploration
(e.g., Gemini III, Apollo 9). But the overall record does show several
significant examples of exploration.


The real question - why was it available for Artic and African
exploration, but not space exploration?

In raw dollar terms, some money is available. Telstar is an early
example. We can hope the success of Rutan's SpaceShipOne will encourage
more.
--
Kevin Willoughby lid

The loss of the American system of checks and balances
is more of a security danger than any terrorist risk.
-- Bruce Schneier