How do you feel about the end of the NASA Space Shuttle Program? How do you think this will affect mankind’s efforts to

Question: How do you feel about the end of the NASA Space Shuttle Program? How do you think this will affect mankind's efforts to establish a research base on another planet or satellite?
- Keywords:
  NASA,
  space
Asked by misteraddy to Ben, Jony, Katharine, Mark, Peter on 21 Nov 2011. This question was also asked by nerd101.
- Mark Basham answered on 18 Nov 2011:
  
  It was sad but not the end of good space research. We talked about this in the live chat, but for anyone browsing check out the Skylon project. Amazing UK based Space Plane.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft)
  
  One of the main engineers came to RAL to give a talk, and the Engine design is absolutely amazing. Engineering at its best!
- Peter Williams answered on 19 Nov 2011:
  
  The end of an iconic programme. I remember when the first one went up – that shows my age.
  It’s certainly not the end of space exploration though.
- Jony Hudson answered on 21 Nov 2011:
  
  It looks like a really exciting time for space travel to me. I’m thinking about SpaceShipOne, Blue Origin and all these other groups that are racing to commercialise their programs. Feels quite exciting, and I imagine what it might have been like when air travel first became a commonplace thing.

Question: How do you feel about the end of the NASA Space Shuttle Program? How do you think this will affect mankind's efforts to establish a research base on another planet or satellite?