Money talks...

It's likely that the next stage of the space race will be commercially driven.

There's that line in Fight Club about interstellar corporations naming the galaxies, which is probably not far from the truth. The Capitalist US government may run out of US taxpayers moeny to give to NASA, but the billionaires like Bill Gates and the huge MNCs will certainly have the money. And all those people who watch the launches. Wouldn't it be great to have the Pepsi logo on the side of that rocket for all the world to see? Choice of a new generation of astronauts. Great commercial potential. Unlimited funds.

These things don't happen overnight. Columbus' discovery of America was on the back of thousands of years of developing sailing craft. So we need to be developing space craft for our first "Columbus" to be able to sail out into the stars and discover, well, new worlds. And keep in mind he only discovered America by accident and thought he was in India (which is why native Americans were called Indians). It'll probably the same way when we discover whatever's waiting out there.

And if it is privately funded, the people funding it will want to go themselves, not just send a robot with a camera.

Richard Branson is already planning Virgin Galactic to take the first commercial space flights. He's even having 5 space shuttles commissioned. And you just know he'd love to be the first man to set foot on Mars.