Politicians want splashy headlines and photo ops with flag-planting moments and that's enough for them. This is exactly why they shouldn't set scientific missions.

The idea that halting science and exploration until we fix all the world's ills is extremely popular. It's also extremely ignorant and self-sabotaging.

The team behind Duke Nukem Forever failed to learn the most important lesson of any creative and engineering field: at some point you have to stop designing and building the thing.