It's all politics...

The first space race was politically driven - capitalism vs communism, east vs west, the good old US of A versus Russia, free market vs command economy.

The principles of capatilism won the space race and got to the moon first.

However it is the principles of communism that are being used to solve global recession.

The core communist belief was that they were never in a "war" with the capitalists. Capitlism would eventually destroy itself and an order of socialism would rise from the ashes as the State took control.

Perhaps Marx was right after all?

China, the last true Communist state, and the main Communist nuclear superpower, already has population control, so they are halving their inhabitants each generation rather than doubling them. Something we can't (yet) impose in the free world. And it's most likely China that would set off the next space race - if they started looking to go to the Moon, then the US would definately start building rockets again.

We still have to deal with global warming and climate change. Being rich won't help you when the ozone layer's gone or the ice age returns or we run out of resources.

There's an old Indian saying:

"Only when they last river has been poisioned, only when the last fish has been killed, only when the last tree has been cut down, only then will you realise that money can not be eaten."

That was said by an Indian shaman to the capatalist white man. Allegedly.

But perhaps we will have to revert to, or develop a new form of, socialism, a global state with state control, to solve this crisis.

And then we'll need to look to colonise other planets.