I don't find this long article particularly enlightening about NASA's situation, except that budget cuts and lack of moonshot type projects aren't particularly

I don't find this long article particularly enlightening about NASA's situation, except that budget cuts and lack of moonshot type projects aren't particularly inspiring to the young. Ultimately, that's where space activity should go (and hopefully will go). Over a few centuries, shipping went from having the perception (rightly or wrongly) of adventure and travel, to a base commodity. Today you could ship a 40ft container of laptops from Dalian to Rotterdam (5500 km by North-East passage) for 60 US cents a laptop, and if you're sending lots of containers, expect a bulk discount. If the cost of shipping[1] doubles, the end consumer buying the laptop won't even notice! This is where space activity should end up :) [1]: Obviously by shipping I mean the bit on actual ships; not the cost of trucks to and from the ports, which is horrifically expensive by comparison.