>First, private capital is seeing space as a good investment, willing to fund individuals who are passionate about exploring space, for adventure as well as pro

>First, private capital is seeing space as a good investment, willing to fund individuals who are passionate about exploring space, for adventure as well as profit. What was once affordable only by nations can now be lucrative, public-private partnerships. For the moment being, that sounds specious at best. We (the US) are not able to get back to the moon because of a lack of funds (NASA accounted for some 5% of the entire federal budget in 1966, now it's down to .5%); any amount of funding by private entities for such tasks is minuscule in comparison, and therefore obviously insufficient. But I suppose that'll change in interesting ways with time.