General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: We should have been colonizing the solar system by now. [View all]struggle4progress
(118,282 posts)was not the only point of the 1960s space race. The space race was partly prestige propaganda, conducted by the USA and USSR, and aimed at other nations, with the message "Align with us! Look what we can do!" The space race was partly military propaganda,conducted by the USA and USSR, and aimed at each other: "If we can send a rocket into orbit, we can sure as hell drop an H-bomb on DC!" or "If we can send folks to the moon, we can sure as hell nuke the fuck out of Moscow"
Those reasons are gone
In spending money on non-essentials like space exploration now, we want the biggest bang for the buck: what will give us the biggest return in information and innovation per dollar spent? And human flight is much less efficient than robotics in that regard