Congrats to NASA and… Ellen Page, I guess.
NASA successfully launced Juno today, a probe that should arrive at its Jupiter destination sometime around Independence Day, 2016. Like everyone else, I was sad for the end of the Space Shuttle program, but I’m glad we’re not abandoning space exploration completely.
I mean, sure, it’s massively expensive. And the potential benefits seem pretty vague and theoretical when viewed through the lens of our day-to-day lives. But anything that helps us understand our universe is ultimately very important, because if we know how we got here, we get the answers to where we’re going.
One of the most exciting things, to me, anyway, is the current theory that some of Jupiter’s moons might be able to support life. How cool would that be? Alien life in our own system?
Besides, we should continue to support the space program for one reason, if no other: if there is life on one of Jupiter’s moons, and it’s angry… wouldn’t you want to know about it ahead of time?
So what’s the future of space exploration, in your opinion? What should our next big mission be?
47 Echo 
I think it be cool if we went with creating orbital shipyards to allow for better and cheaper ship construction, build a couple akin to what the Soviets had planned back in the day.
I’m positive we’ll baby-step it. Moon again. Mars. Maybe a few other moons in the system. That will be it in our lifetime, I think. I HOPE I’m wrong…..