Just so. NASA's truly great impact has been with the Hubble, Cassini, Voyager probes, Mars Exploration Rovers, etc. There's certainly no commercial interest in the foreseeable future for doing missions like that, and I certainly think its important that those kind of projects (and the primary R&D behind them) to continue (and proliferate!). That should be NASA's job.
Where NASA went wrong, however, was in trying to build its identity around the frankly rather prosaic business of trucking stuff to and around space. That's what the private sector really ought to be doing, with NASA as its most mind-blowing customer. I'm very excited to see things heading in that direction.
While NASA's greatest impact from a scientific standpoint has been through those programs, its greatest impact from a "get people excited about space so that they'll fund NASA" standpoint has come from the shuttle program, which is why NASA has spent so much money and resources on it over the years.
Edit: I referred to the shuttle program because it is the means through which we've gotten humans into space for awhile and I was contrasting it with the other list of programs.
Ah, that's the "no Buck Rogers, no bucks" school of thought -- which, actually, I agree with. There are several reasons why humans in space are a good and necessary thing, but as you say, people just need to relate back to the human experience in order to get excited enough to fund the thing.
The error you/NASA made is in believing that this excitement came from the shuttle program itself. No, it came from having humans in space, and the shuttle just happened to be the only way for Americans to do that. This doesn't mean that the excitement ever came from the shuttle.
Commercial vehicles such as the CST-100, Dragon, Dream Chaser, etc., will also all take people to space -- not only the same sort of astronauts who flew on the shuttle, but a far greater diversity of private astronauts as well. I'm certain that this will only get people more excited about space.
"Commercial vehicles such as the CST-100, Dragon, Dream Chaser, etc., will also all take people to space -- not only the same sort of astronauts who flew on the shuttle, but a far greater diversity of private astronauts as well. I'm certain that this will only get people more excited about space."
Yes exactly. Becoming an Astronaut has always been for a select, highly qualified few. And it comes with tremendous terrestrial sacrifices. Commercial travel suddenly makes is possible for anybody who can buy a ticket (and can sign the waiver forms) to go somewhere in space.
More importantly, the kinds of jobs that we've been putting our astronauts to work on seem mostly like their terrestrial equivalents of "truck driver", "construction worker", "janitor" and now with asteroid mining "miner". Some of those are high risk jobs here on Earth, but there's never been a shortage of people willing to do them in the commercial sector. There's no reason that those job categories require the creme-de-la-creme from humanity...with multiple Masters and Phds, decades in the military with multiple medals for bravery. That model came from the 50's.
Let's look for the guys that'll go to Afghanistan and drive a truck to deliver cigarettes to a remote Operating Base, or build whiskey bars in the Arctic. That's the new model for these kinds of space jobs. Hardy pioneer types with a healthy survival instinct and pants full of bravery.
Where NASA went wrong, however, was in trying to build its identity around the frankly rather prosaic business of trucking stuff to and around space. That's what the private sector really ought to be doing, with NASA as its most mind-blowing customer. I'm very excited to see things heading in that direction.