If you could head a space program...

[Akinesis]

...what would you do or focus on?

And let's pretend there is no budget, but you are limited by today's accessible technology.

For me, I would love to drop a balloon in Jupiters atmosphere that sends back HD pictures. I just have a burning desire to float above those cloud formations I think they would make spectacular pictures!

[ash73]

I'd set off a nuclear explosion in the asteroid belt to deflect an asteroid into the path of Venus, just at the right angle to set the planet spinning so it creates a magnetic field then we can terraform it. Of course, it might all go wrong but it would be very kerbal!

More realistically, I'm excited by the New Horizons visit to Pluto/Charon, and Dawn visiting Ceres, as it will be the first time we've seen them properly. I'd like to put a balloon probe into Titan's atmosphere too.

[Cby]

I would likely restart the constlation mission that was canceled. Otherwise, I would like to explore Saturn and it's moons.

[RogueMason]

Manned and unmanned exploration on a major scale. I'd hope to be on the Moon very quickly, with Mars not long after. Europa is also a prime target, but I wouldn't send men out too far before some probes got it all figured out. Of course, I want to go all the way out to the stars, ultimately, but until we have some form of warp drive, the rest of the planet's will more than do.

Civilian space flight and accessibility is another objective, eventually.

[Synapse]

Apply for volunteers for a one-way trip to Mars.

[jacob97]

Apply for volunteers for a one-way trip to Mars.

That's basically what Mars One is doing. search it on google, they're sending humans by 2023

[Richy teh space man]

Build a ship yard around Earth, then build a manned ship that could visit Mars and discover some of it's secrets.

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

I would build a moon base and then build rockets on the lunar surface to go to mars.

Also PROBES EVERYWHERE

[Mr. Scruffy]

I´d focus on evaluating the chances and possibilities of terraforming and settling on Mars, if there is no budget constraints, besides of focusing on the budget situations remaining as it is. Another focus would depend on the requirements of science: If the astro-physician-community told me, that they needed this probe in that location in order to test some ground-breaking theory, i´d let them have that, of course. But the main focus would be to spread earthly life where no life currently exists.

EDIT: A little philosophical sidenote: Some people, when looking at the whole earth as a single organism, tend to assign the role of the brain of the planet to mankind. But when i look at the average thoughtfullness of the actions of human masses and how it always only follows its desires without much care for consequences, i´d much rather assign another pair of body parts, very male ones, to mankind. If we are that, we could at least fullfill that role properly to its purpose...

Edited July 31, 2013 by Mr. Scruffy

[Ralathon]

Why focus on one thing when there is no budget? Just split up into subdivisions, each focusing on a different subject.

Anyway, if I had to pick i'd have the following priority list:

1: nuclear lander to Europa to try and melt through the ice.

2: Cassini style probes to Neptune and Uranus.

3: Mars sample return mission.

[Skorpychan]

Asteroid and moon mining, to facilitate further exploration.

Beyond that, I'd do the exploration with a combination of manned craft and probes. Send probes in first, then send human crews in to do more detailed experiments, fix things, and move them to pastures new.

Spirit and Opportunity could easily be fixed by a team of astronauts, for example. Pick them up, sweep the dust off the panels, replace the wheels, charge the batteries, and set them chugging off again.

[bigyihsuan]

Go to the Jovian Planets, the Kuiper Belt, the Oort Cloud, and send 16 probes into interstellar space.

Send a probe to each, with a massive battery on board with an RTG, a pair of solar panels, and the rest for probes.

Have the Kuiper probe and the Oort probe orbit the Sun.

Have the Jovian probes orbit their respective planets; include a structurally-reinforced probe on the parent probe to enter the atmospheres of the planets with many sensors like accelorometers, barometers, thermometers, etc.; have a lander for every moon that is within the "Top 10 Largest Moons" list for that parent planet; HD cameras; etc.

Have the 16 interstellar probes be sent in different directions relative to the Sun (N, NNE, NE, ENE, E, ESE, SE, SSE, etc.), equipped with an HD camera along with what is stated above.

Because simply we do(n't have a lot of) probes around the outer solar system and beyond.

[Sid]

Long baseline interferometry space telescope for directly imaging extra solar planets.

Missions to Jupiter and Saturns moons.

Explore possibility of mining on the moon and the asteroid belt.

Identify Kerbin and send mission to request Jebs help...

[Mr. Scruffy]

Oh, i dont think we need broken probes on it to have a reason to send (wo-)men to Mars. Yesterday, i watched (well skimmed) the first hour or so of the landed curiosity footage. Mixed emotions, i must say, right from the first few seconds: Cool, way cool, we can see this. But, man, it would soo much cooler if we´d actually be there. The desire just kinda immediately pops into my head. Just because, you know? All the video-tech is great, but to ´feel´ a place, you have to actually be there. The probes are just an intermidiate step from ´artist impression´ to ´someone has been there, felt the place´.

Say you have a pen-friend on another continent. Before, you just new rough data about the place that person lives in. Now this person starts to describe his/her life and where he/she lives. You get an ´artists impression´. Later, the person sends you pictures of the cool places he/she likes to visit. That would be the probes. But you will still know very little about how that person lives, how it´s like to live in that country, until you have actually gone for a visit. Knowing all the dats, hearing desciptions, or even seeing pictures just does not compare to being able to, say, pick up a stone, turn it, feel its weight in your hand, to throw it, feel the force applied, see it land and impact - in short to experience this other world.

And just knowing that some human had that chance would be enough reason for me, as a space program president, to go for it, if possible.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Mr. Scruffy

[Robbii6]

i would do my best to get probes to celestial bodies

[Pixel of Life]

Going back to the moon would be my number one. Maybe have some kind of a laboratory built on the surface.

[Scotius]

Manned base on the Moon. Reasonably quick development of nuclear and fusion engines. Shifting launching business to Skylon-like crafts. Industry in space. Exploration of Near Earth Obiects, followed by mining missions. Manned exploration of Mars and asteroids. Probes to outer planets. Colony on Mars. If engine development is succesfull interstellar probe(s) to nearest stars. Warp Drive!

[CoriW]

Well, I think I would continue the research and development of Project Orion which was ended in by the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, along with that I would also put some research and development into the O'Neill Cylinder. While that was being worked on I would have several deep space telescopes sent up into orbit which would have the required equipment to identify planets around nearby stars to determine size, density, atmospheric composure, etc in order to find planets that could possibly sustain human life. Once Project Orion and the O'Neill Cylinder had been fully developed I would have a ship built in LEO utilizing both technologies in order to be capable of long term habitation and interstellar travel, it would take about 75 - 100 years to get to some of our closer neighboring stars, and could sustain around 250,000 people.

And yes... I got the idea for the ship from "Evacuate Earth".

(As a side note, Evacuate Earth is a pretty good watch, I recommend watching it if you haven't.)

[Monkeh]

8 O'Clock. Day 1. Lasers.

(Bonus point for anyone who gets the reference)

[Sid]

8 O'Clock. Day 1. Lasers.

(Bonus point for anyone who gets the reference)

Time Bandits ?

[marko dash]

in order?

start with expanding our presence in orbit, orbital construction of a 'pure space' earth-moon relay ship, permanent lunar base, lagrange point centrifuge gravity station, lunar colony, manned mars mission, asteroid mining, mars base, mars orbital station, mars colony.

[Monkeh]

Bonus point goes to Sid. Congratulations. Don't spend it all at once...or something.

Great fillum.

[el_coyoto]

Unlimited budget, but today's technology ?

Well, I think I'd start with the unmanned exploration and extraction of resources from asteroids. If the operation is economically successful, space will become a "new frontier" and wealthy organizations would probably fund more of these expeditions because the have the time and resources and can expect a return on investment.

With each of these mining operations, the cost of materials will decrease, because we will bring them from space in bigger quantities than we extract them on Earth.

So each new mission, will cost less and return less (this is the risky part for investors), but at some point we will have access to a relative abundance of cheap resources and energy in LEO that will have (I hope) a positive impact on the mindset of our primitive species that always hungers for resources.

This relative abundance will also allow more R&D, better technologies and a real interest for space (whether scientific or economic) that might promote an ambitious but economically sound colonization program.

The other thing I would start the day right after my nomination would a real program on life support and the ability to live in a closed environment for a long time, especially growing crops in space. We are perfectly able to reach Mars or any other targets in the Solar System, we have very advanced techs (ion engines, the DSN and advanced communication protocols, etc), but we are still unable to sustain ourselves in a closed environment. These life support technologies may seem trivial and unimportant, but for a manned flight, they are at least as important as the others.

This thought always depresses me, because this means that no one is going to Mars any time soon...

TL;DR : I'd try to create some kind of economical singularity by starting an intensive asteroid exploration et resources extraction, then colonize the rest of the Solar System.

Yeah, I know, I read Arthur C. Clarke and Kim Stanley Robinson way too much...

[razark]

And let's pretend there is no budget...

What do you mean pretend? I hear plenty of griping about no budget now!

Assuming you meant "no budget" the other way:

Colonize Mars. Then start looking deep into the moons of Jupiter.

[SofusRud]

Restart the Orion Program and start sending million-ton spaceships to everywhere, driven by the magic of nuclear pulse units.

Could colonize Mars with a handful of those. Best thing is, the tech was developed in the 50s so it isn't subject to limitations.