However, I think that we should keep sending more unmanned probes like NEAR, Galileo and even big ones like Cassini. My dream is to see a NEAR-type mission and maybe even a lander to Ceres, our largest asteroid. We have no clear pictures of Ceres. Yet it is the best place for a deep space outpost for humans, after Mars. As far as I know, there are no plans to explore our best asteroid.
Ceres is the size of Texas.
What a cool place for a radio and a big optical telescope. What a cool place to live. The Challenger disaster and the end of the Cold War affected the public's, and our, priorities and appetite for space exploration. But now we find ourselves at an historic inflection point, where our economy is stronger than it has ever been before, and we face no great enemy. We could either retreat into ourselves in self-congratulation and live a slow but steady decline, or we can use our good fortune to strive for something truly great for all of humanity, and for our children.