Killing the space program off is about the stupidest possibe move we as a society could ever make. And yet we seem to be doing exactly that. Every major technological innovation in the last 50 years was made possible in whole or in part by space based research. Cell phones, wifi, robot manufacturing techniques, advanced plastics, digital cameras, anything with an LED in it, anything made of newer metal alloys, medicine, "green" energy, sloar panels, wind turbines, etc. If you take away the hige research investment required to get to where we are in space technology, all of those technologies go away.
There is nothing more important to us as a civilization than a thriving, funded space program.
Admittedly, there are major problems with what we have now. The Shuttile should have been replaced 20 years ago at the latest. We need a less expensive way to orbit larger objects. We need a system that is truely 100% reusable, and as much as I like the shuttle, we probably need to rethink that approach to space access.
What we really need on orbit, docked to the ISS, are a pair or so of contained mobile work platforms. Something with reaction mass and engines to change orbits, a shuttle style enclosed bay with a manipulator arm. Something we can move about and park wherever we need it, to retrieve / refuel satilites, aid in construction of larger, interplanetary vessles, orbital refineries, space station expansion, etc. If you remove all the reentry equipment and the wings, then make the bay of the shuttle about 4 times the size it is currently, something like that would be ideal.
We also need a heavy lift rocket. Ares V would have worked well, and would not have had the stability issues that Ares I would have. The DIRECT V3 Jupiter rocket proposal would also do the trick (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_(rocket_family)). That or maybe the Falcon heavy. Regardless, we need to be able to orbit larger objects. If we could orbit enough CNC production and orbital mineral refinement capacity, we could start processing asteroids. Once we can do that, we can make whatever the heck we want in space. The ISS is a good research hub, but it isn't anywhere near large enough or expandable enough to be up to that task.
We have plenty of cheap medium and light lift rockets. We do need a human rated transport vehicle. Single Stage to Orbit vehicles are possible, as the cancelled venturestar showed. At the end, they had the thrust and the weight where it needed to be to launch, and the test flights before funding was cut were promising. They aren't really practicle though unless you are just trying to get people and not equipment to orbit. Capsule based rockets have issues in that if something goes horribly wrong, your escape options are limited. A glider, with updated, 2011 era heat shield technology, an ejector seat style escape system, launched from the back of a large carrier aircraft at high altitudes would have the advantage of being completely reusable, and capable of making multiple trips as often as we could fuel and insepct the orbiters. If you simply redesigned the shuttle using Alloys we have available today, with those aforementioned updates for safety, lighter control systems, sensors, computers, engines, etc, then modified one of our existing high speed bomber designs into a carrier aircraft, you would have a system capable of launching from any suitable runway, with less risk of a failed launch abort, no need for an external fuel tank or booster rockets, and with a higher payload capacity. You could probably get enough payload capacity from the upgrades that a pair of atmospheric jet engines could also be installed for controlled landings, which would also serve to increase landing safety.
We also need the robot fleet. The James Webb Space telescope is very, very important to our fundamental research efforts. We need to not only launch that one, but we should build 4 more of them. The hubble has a 10 year waiting list for minutes of research time with any of its instruments. We also need orbital power satilites, Nerva rocket based intersteller probes, astroid monitoring stations. Climate monitoring stations. Our weather satilite network is falling into disrepair. Our GPS satilite network is also ageing. We need mining robots to bring back material from the belts. We need the helium III from the lunar surface. We need to send something to land on europa to **** off the monoliths.
We haven't launched a real purpose built intersteller probe in decades. Especially with Kepler, now that we have the capability to actually find planets that have a real chance of supporting life, we should be sending them everywhere.
Unless we commit to building all of those things, we really won't get the investment back out of our space program that we need. But there is hope still. New modules for the ISS are quietly being proposed and making the rounds. We actually right at this very moment have 3 space stations in orbit technically. 2 are small, sub scale demonstration modules from this company: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigelow_Aerospace with no one onboard, but they are pressurized, heated, aired up, and if someone were able to get to them, they could survive. There is talk that the Direct V3 rocket might actually be built. The Vasimir ion rocket (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VASIMR) looks like it will actually be launched. If we can get even a few nerva engines launched in our lifetime, we have a real shot at actually accomplishing something in space rather than just dinking around the edge of our atmosphere.
There is some hope, but the shuttle program wasn't ready for scrapping. Constellation had issues, but it was far enough along that it also should have been left alone. We can spend trillions to bail out crappy companies that had no effect, but we can't spare the 10 billion we need for an adequate space program that we know will put hundreds of thousands of people to work and historically speaking at least has generated enough new technology to make trillions worth of industries possible?
We were spacemen once. Perhaps our children will be so again.
