Interstellar travel and the manned flight to Mars

[buzz]

This issue of Popular Science has an article that is a must read!
Chang Diaz, originally from Costa Rica believes the same as I do. From the article:
...long-range space travel [is] the ultimate solution to the ultimate problem. The human race, he argues, will one day inevitably conclude that it has to live elsewhere in order to survive. It is also very possible ... that as resources dry up on Earth, other, potentially more profitable ones may be out there in the cosmos - something vastly more useful for batteries than lithium, perhaps, or for conductivity than copper ... I really don't even see Mars as the end point; I see it as more of a waypoint.

The Vasimir rocket uses an electrical source to convert hydrogen into plasma, making incredible speeds unattainable by conventional chemical rockets possible. Diaz estimates with his rocket we could get to Mars in 39 days, eliminating one of the biggest hurdles. Obama is now calling for a privatized space industry and wants us to move beyond the moon. I know many of you will dismiss this like in my last post, but his goal is to get us to Mars by 2030. That's our life time. The time is now.
I've been kind of erratic I know, this has got me very excited and I don't think I'll do much sleeping tonight. I'd love to hear any opinions especially from those more knowledgeable. Also, for those who play the market game, I'd urge you to consider investing in Ad Astra Rocket Company, if not for your own returns, than for the good and continued survival of the human race.

[Jon]

I forgot where I read it, but a manned flight to a asteroid should be even sooner than say a "possible" mission to Mars. I hate to be cynical, but I'm not sure if the US will have the focus or determination to keep pouring money into a such an expensive venture. With the tough times ahead I can see NASA being underfunded or its focus changed every 5 years, and I don't think privatized space flight will be able to get us to space beyond launching more satellites. Aside from tourism, scientific research and telecommunications there isn't any money there for the next few centuries unless we run out of enough resources where we need to begin mining asteroids.
I love the idea of interstellar travel, but I am not sure if people have the patience or the stomach to develop a program for getting us there. Or at least not in this cycle of civilization. The magnitudes of time, distance and risk are so far beyond our current notions of feasibility that barring a last ditch effort in the face of disaster I doubt mankind has the will to complete the task.

[Chad]

I love the idea of space travel even if it is only within our system. However, we are not economically or socially ready for it. The current political environment would never approve the plan, and if they did many would work for it's failure.
In about 10 years bring this up again and I will be all for it. By then we will have failed and collapsed, or succeeded spectacularly.

[George the original one]

An international effort, where the costs are spread around, would likely get political backing.

[csdx]

It's not even recently that politics and economics have kept us on our rock. We've had Project Orion since the 50's, which can actually attain reasonable fractions of c. But people would seem to prefer to use nuclear bombs to blow ourselves up rather than drive a space ship. I'm still optimistic that we'll get over our differences at least enough to launch at least a few long range ships.