Quote
Originally posted by Regulus:
We need a motive for exploration, and that has to be resource acquisition. Obviously, nobody is going to find oil in the asteroid belt, and I can't really think of any metal that's so precious we'd send an expedition all the way to outer space to collect it.
(/B)
I disagree that the only reason exploration would happen is in search of resources. Our current models of living say we need to get more resources, but if there were a massive plague, huge war, or stringent population controls, the planet could sustain human populations for quite some time.
What about religion as a means of promoting exploration? Religion is a powerful motivator and can easily produce fanatics (as recent events have shown). A possible setup: "Today's signal is tomorrow's noise". The initial detection of extrasolar planets in the 1990s led to the establishment of two large, linked spaced-based telescopes that allowed resolution of earth sized planets orbiting other stars. Using spectral data, the space agencies were unable to discover any traces of extrasolar life. The elements of life, yes, but no life. In something close to despiration, the space agencies of earth scour the planets of the system. Europe, Titan, Mars...all baren. Throwing the net wider and wider ice chunks around Saturn are examined, comets landed upon, and even the debris in the ort cloud is examined. Nothing.
We truely were alone.
As a result, a new movement was born. Coming from the concept of Gaia, a new religion was created. The tenants were simple: Life was, indeed, sacred, and it must be protected at all costs. Earth was the only planet on which life existed. With the evolution of Mankind, the planet had reached sexual maturity and through Man, would spread life throughout the Galaxy.
The movement started small, but it recruited heavily, mainly among the rich, the disenchanted, those willing to risk everything just to get out there. The $ grew, and they began to acquire the technology to place their own vechicles, first into orbit, and then throughout the system.
That's the idea, anyway. It'd make for an interesting situation if they encountered alien life. Maybe an irrational reaction to it? It's not from the Mother (Earth/Gaia) and therefore must be destroyed. Could result in a massive schism, those that felt all life was sacred and worthy of spread, and those saying only life from Earth was "chosen".
I like the idea of a civil war erupting over the discovery of an non-terran based bacterium.
Alternately, if one could find a way to easily overcome the gravitywell, ordinary people would be building spacecraft in their garages. 
-STH
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"Christ, what if the terrorists' base of operations turns out to be Detroit? Would we declare war on the state of Michigan? I suppose we'd have to." -U.S. Sen. John McCain, misquoted in (url="http://"http://www.theonion.com")"The Onion"(/url)
