Gene Healy, who writes for the Washington Examiner, has penned an article in which he describes manned spaceflight as a big "bridge to nowhere." COTTonLINE believes such views are shortsighted.
Imagine if, after the three voyages of Columbus to the Americas, Europe had decided that such voyages cost too much and produced too little in the way of return. Accurate at that point, such a judgment could have justified an end to further voyages of exploration. The returns of exploring the Americas came later, and they were very large indeed.
The returns of planetary exploration can be exponentially greater than those of the Americas, if only the exploration is undertaken. Right now the prospects for that don't look good.
