As far as those questioning the need for human space exploration I
personally think it's one of the most important activities we should be
doing today. I don't know why, I don't have a good reason except I would
like to believe that humans can safely travel through space. Just chalk it
up to human vanity and the need to know.

As far as trashing the shuttles and the station I suppose we could but they
are still extremely viable and we have spent far more on B.S. than we ever
have on our space program. If we trashed the station then we wouldn't have
the ability to keep people in space for extended periods meaning that any
trip to Mars is just a dream.

But what if ???

What if we built one or two large reliable space craft in orbit. They would
not be intended to land on Earth so forget the heat problems. It would be
accessed by the mini shuttle that is planned for 2012. They would be
intended for astronauts to take very long trips, around the Moon, asteroid
and comet visits, maybe a trip around Mars. That would solve several
problems reasonably without the added risk of landing humans in alien
evironments which can come later.

Is this an idea or would it just be as bad as our current shuttles and
station ???