"Look at the US Space Program. There was a time when that was a well-funded jewel in the crown of US scientific achievement."
Um no, it was a well-funded military program that was wrapped up in jingoistic PR. There was very little "science", lots of engineering though.
To say the space program involved very little science (nice scare quotes btw) is simply wrong and bespeaks a certain ignorance about the program. Your statement is more political spin than it is fact.
"Now due to lethargy, nebulous organizational mission, poor management, and a dearth of imagination,"
The same can be said of 19th century coal locomotives. We don't use them anymore because they make no sense, not because of your reasons. Imagination doesn't move mass, energy does. We simply have hit the limits of what's possible. There are no exotic sci-fi "fields" and bizarre particles to enable the delirious sci-fi "technologies" that sci-fi "promised" us.
The space program involved much more than moving mass, demonstrating again you're not particularly familiar with the topic.
That's why space is dead. Space is huge, it's mostly empty and we've been there. We know, we have pictures. Reality suggests we move on and concentrate on the real jewel, our planet.
Sanctimonious pablum.
There is also the possibility that we shovel more money into these 'big science' projects and physics slowly grinds to a halt anyway. Ingenuity is as likely to drive big discoveries in 'small science' as a lack-of-ingenuity is to thwart big discoveries in 'big science.'
Look at the US Space Program. There was a time when that was a well-funded jewel in the crown of US scientific achievement. Now due to lethargy, nebulous organizational mission, poor management, and a dearth of imagination, NASA has become something of a scientific backwater whose colossal screw-ups garner more attention than any experimentation it does. Arguably it is currently overfunded given the full scope of its administrative competency.
Garbage In -- Gospel Out.
