> It seems that manned missions to Mars can't arouse the passions of the people and spark the imagination quite as well as a good potato chip debate.

From my 'external' point of view ('external' referred to American culture and way of life), I'm not surprised; well, I'm surprised that you didn't get the point...

Quoting the words of a friend that lives in Dayton (but he's not the only one), it seems that the USA, despite the fact that now are *the* worldwide reference, miss some kind of frontier.
In other words, USA are the only valid competitors in the challenge for space.
Back to the Apollo missions, space technology was pushed by political, economical and national pride issues so both the USA and Russia developed their solutions; Europe built its Space Agency as an independent entity but it went soon under the influence of NASA (and this collaboration does better than expected, merging two industrial and technological strenghts).
Nowadays European Space Agency has the technology but cannot afford to implement it (building its own Space Shuttles or space stations); Italian-German technology for telcom satellites is really good, but it's not enough; Ariane missiles are good, when don't explode at start, but aren't enough to bring people to Mars (I'm not against France, but their nuclear tests in Mururoa and some recent facts with Italy lowered a lot their reputation, IMHO).
Former USSR republics prefer to fight civil wars rather than looking to space, so Russia is not a competitor anymore.
China... well, their missiles seem to be the most explosive technological tool ever made.

All in all, you're on your own to conquer the space; it costs a lot of technological and economical efforts and there isn't any political pressure to back up those efforts. It seems that Bush jr. prefers to spend money on the Space Defense programs(*) rather than on space missions.
You, you that live in the USA, not only lost your nerve. You need to feel space as the new frontier - and need it as quick as possible, otherwise you'll end up in your comfortable way of life while Europe gets the necessary power to become the world leader in the decades to come.
Of course if Europe becomes a world leader, your favorite potato chips will be replaced by all-natural French Fries.



Well, if this doesn't move your national pride, I'll quit...
AP.

(*) not counting that [censored] of Putin, that's ready to increase Russia's military power as a reaction to Bush politics... [as reported from European press this week].