Here's a lengthy article arguing that space exploration is the key to getting out of the economic mess. Yet another example of people using the economic mess to justify funding their pet project (on the way in, I heard on the radio that lots of small businesses are hiring lobbyists to get their cut). I happen to like this particular pet project (space exploration), but the financial mess hardly argues for it. It clearly won't help with the short-term issues we face.

However, as I've gone on and on about before, in talking about Mars, I think it will be a very large part of long-term advancement, but I doubt I'll live long enough to see it. Moreover, it won't work if our approach to space is essentially the same as it is now. I feel like the national space industry has reached a dead end (like many government and large corporate projects do) -- it exists merely to justify continued existence. Why do we have a space shuttle? To get to the space station. Why do we have a space station? To justify the space shuttle. Sure, we're scrapping that to go to Mars by way of the Moon. Which brings up the obvious question -- why bother with the Moon as an intermediate step? Going straight to Mars may be easier than going to Moon, and it's almost certainly easier to go Earth -> Mars than it is to go Earth -> Moon -> Mars. So, why Earth -> Moon -> Mars? (You can guess my cynical answer to that question.)

Now, if only we could get AoPS a slice of that bailout pie... Instead, I suspect we'll be paying for it.