[ekianjo]

> Ultimately I think it would serve as a marker of our collective lack of imagination over the past 50 years to explore, perhaps because the costs weren't palatable relative to any resources we could hope to exploit.

Honestly it's not a lack of imagination - Plans to explore Mars and even other planets existed back in the 60s and 70s. Space Exploration was very much a byproduct of the Cold War - developing rockets mean you developed the ability to produce ICBMs as well to strike with nuclear heads anywhere, anytime, and Space programs were simply the tip of the otherwise military Iceberg.

They also served as PR material to give a positive image of rockets development, while actually most rockets are made to nuke the Earth multiple times.

Now, the tensions we had during the Cold War are lower, and the need to develop new rocket tech has decreased, and you get a Space Program on diet.