"Mike Morris" wrote in message ...
While I am totally onside with the idea of exploring
mars and the rest of our solar system; I am starting
to wonder whether we have been sold a pup with
these MER rovers.

I have to say that so far I'm not too impressed with the
science that has come from the Mer rovers.

What science! - Soil structure? Or may be life signs? It is
interesting to look at the curious combination of known but price is
too high to satisfy this curiosity. There are indeed fundamental areas
of research that will affect humanity destiny:

-New physics (meta physics ;o)
-Genome ingenerating
-Nuclear fusion; it is not as fundamental but it has the highest
practical priority. 20-30 years and US oil-economy will face total
annihilation if do not take care today.

Unfortunately, the prestige of scientist in US is much lower to be
adequate to attract sufficient number the most gifted part of
generation. The typical mass-media scientist image is a good
illustration of its social status (freaks). The tax money has to be
spent not for personal reelection campaign but keeping in mind the
strategic country benefits. The nuclear fusion is a good example that
even trivial/evident strategic solution is neglected since it does
look as a threat for current corporative lay out. Anyway this crisis
will come and it will be overcome but the price may be very different
and may be very unfortunate for US.

George