> I want to go to Mars

Well, Dave, I haven't read the other replies to your post. I don't have to. I agree with you 100%. The fact is that I was almost 36 years old when people first walked on the moon. I told the kids in my science class that before the turn of the century, men would walk on Mars. I'm as disappointed as you are, but I have a real problem. I'm going to be 68 next month and if I get to see people on Mars, somebody is going to have to get the lead out and start packing.

I remember as a kid, there were things that I looked forward to. Such as:
A trip to California.
Halley's comet
Travel to the moon
Travel to Mars
Flying above the clouds
New Year's Eve, 2001
Stuff like that. Halley's comet was a bust, but all of the others, except that one, have been even better than I expected.

As for the money spent on space exploration, people seem to think we are putting money in rockets and firing it off into space. Not so. The money goes to buy the stuff we need for space exploration. It goes to companies that design and build space hardware. It stimulates our economy. It improves the lives of working people. And as you said, it builds technology that benefits us all. Wars do some of that, but space exploration is a lot nicer.

As a kid, when I read Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein stories about space, I never dreamed that television would take us all along for the ride. I thought of TV as radio with pictures. Music, news, and sports. I never thought a camera would show me the first foot steps on the moon. And *live* pictures at that!

Where in the world are we going to find another JFK, so we can get on with the exploration, like humans are destined to do?
Howard