30 years, 135 missions . . . . and now its over.

[Stinky The Clown]

I think we're all a little diminished by the end of the Shuttle program. Not so much that it is over, but that there is no manned program to succeed it.

[RT Atlanta]

1. Flight Gap

I hear where you're coming from and feel a little of the same. But... our country had a 6 year gap from the end of Apollo (ASTP in '75) to Columbia's first flight in '81. Of course, the big difference is that the country had a firm collective decision (shuttle/orbiter) and the delays were construction/testing related, rather than a true - what do we do now? since Orion's cancellation.

The foregoing puts me into the category of strongly pulling for the SpaceDev's Dream Chaser, SpaceX's Dragon and the related suborbital crowd to really advance the ball - especially with LEO - while, hopefully, the nation decides where to go next (asteroid and Mars) and then has the balls to make a firm commitment to doing this.

[Selatius]

2. If there were oil on mars or the moon, we'd have more than just manned space missions.

We'd have an entire fleet of ships in orbit right now, trying to exploit that energy. We'd have space docks to build ships. If Mars had life on it or even a primitive alien species on it with technology even less advanced than our own, we'd invade them and take their oil and resources and ruin their planet.

I'm just being flippant.

[leveymg]

3. Starship Troopers, anyone?

http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2008_Starship_Troopers_3:_Marauder/2008_starship_troopers_3_marauder_011.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Wr6RQ1OrNEQ/SY_DuTuYtuI/AAAAAAAAALg/jNNlzuJoL9w/s400/mussolini+tank.jpg