Interesting news on the Space Exploration front the past couple of days. The Chinese reiterated their plan to not only have manned space flight capabilites this year, but to have both a space station and Moon mission of their own by 2010. I wish them luck, and I hope they do their Moon mission the right way, not with the "collapsing telephone pole" of the Apollo era. Yes, Apollo got us to the Moon, but we also haven't gone back. If the Chinese are smart, they'll build their space station and use it as a halfway point for their Moon attempts. Not only is it likely to be cheaper,but it leaves them with assets in space.
In a similar vein, Russia is trying to garner support for a multinational mission to Mars. Although, the Russians are interested in working with NASA, NASA's long-term plan doesn't even address Mars missions (or Moon missions) until at least 2012. Somehow, I don't see NASA getting opn board this one, partially due to cultural malaise, partly due to the budget. The cultural issue could be a real challenge to fix, but the basic solution is easy: new blood. NASA needs new engineers and administrators with the vision to push space exploration. Budgetary issues are pretty easy. A good PR campaign that got Americans excited about space would be all it took. Congress would follow pretty quickly.
Finally, the ESA is working on a project for a Moon mission and possible Moon base in the next 10 years. Their plan would ultimately establish a permanent human presence on the surface of the Moon. No American involvment required.
Notice a trend here? The world's only superpower isn't participating in the visionary new age of exploration. Of course, we're barely interested enough in the rest of the world to learn where other nations are, why should it be a surprise that we don't care about the rest of the solar system. It's beginning to look like Robert Heinlein was prophetic when he said that it wouldn't necessarily English speakers who would colonize space.