> The newer technology offered by the commercial sector getting involved in space flight
> (though not yet space exploration... or maybe so if you include the failed Cosmos 1)
> will start to bring down the cost of space flight in general, even for NASA.

IMHO that is only wishful thinking in your part!

It makes good PR, but the issues associated with safety, liabilities, finger pointing, etc, etc, are all going against your position...

> Then when the commercial sector can deal with getting people in to space, NASA the
> ESA and others can concentrate on solving the next level of problems, inter solar travel.

No within a debt based socio-economic system with the present growing energy costs! IMHO your idealism is not real in terms of execution!!!

> It has happened before. In todays societ you might hop on a commercial airliner
> to get to a conference, but back in the days when there were only two or three
> specialist companies that made aircraft it was firmly in the hands of the pioneers.

True, I will agree with you about that, but what is different now is that the socio-economic models that we have been using for these last few centuries are going exponential and, therefore, can no longer scale as is in the 21st century. Note that all the data supports my more "realistic" position on this vs. your idealism!

> From a personal perspective as well, I don't think society is quite ready to explode
> in on itself at the moment.

Well there are some significant global socio-economic changes going on right now. For example, for these last 5+ years, China and India's economies have grown much, much faster in real terms than USA and Europe...

So there is a global shift of economic power going on...

> If it happens (and remember the last great empire to collapse in on itself was the
> British, and it has hardly been cataclysmic),

True, I will agree with you about that one also.

> I think today it will only really be
> noticeable by a shift in power, ideas and information,
> and not by the bloody upsurges of the past.

I don't know about that since History tends to repeat it self over and over again, it is always the same old story to a certain extend, but with different players. The game of life...

+-wirelessguru1