If you could head a space program...

[Mr. Scruffy]

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[...]

- ´Thou shalt have great knowledge about the land!´

[...]

- ´What´s a paladin?´

[ultima IX]

You have unlimited funds - no need for ´return on investment´, dude.

[Omicron314]

I would first focus on setting up settlements in Earth orbit as well as on the Moon, the main goal of that being to assemble large ships in orbit easily. Then I would send people to Mars because I think it's well past time, and many probes to the other parts of the solar system, specifically Jupiter and Saturn's moons. I'd send many automated submarines underneath the surface of Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, and catalog everything I find. I would do the same with the moons of Saturn, then the same for the other gas giants. By this time, we will have a good amount of knowledge about our solar system, and we can begin setting up large colonies in various places. Asteroid mining would be commonplace, we would be harvesting gases from giant balloons floating in the atmospheres of the gaseous planets. And then, focus on developing stupidly fast propulsion systems, and venture to the stars!

[Travisfv]

I'd reinspire the world's imagination for space exploration. I'd first get it on the lips of everyone, have them asking where are we going next, who are the heroes who are going, what is it going to be like?

Once the world was captivated by the idea of such exploration, I would then show them a ship that is not just functional. It would be a grand and beautiful thing that would look like something out of science fiction. It has to be awe inspiring or else peopel will lose their interest in the program. Don't get me wrong, NASA's Saturn V, Space Shuttle, and Orion crafts are pretty, but when you look at them subjectively they don't look like they are out of place.

I want the ship to look like something you see in Star Trek. Yes it will be fully functional and would work nicely, but its the exterior that the common man will be relating to. You don't inspire a man to work a lot harder by promising him a 1997 Toyota Corolla. Show him a 1964 Aston Martin and he'll push himself to earn that car.

Meanwhile, I would secretly establish a base on the moon. Just as the world is losing interest (inevitably), BOOM! Theres a moon base for you to gawk at. Then that new space ship will be sent off to explore Mars. During it's journey, I would be providing people with tourist trips to the Moon to allow the common man to experience space. All of that will be provided on my large budget pulled in many nations from the PR I have done.

***I just thought of something... Think about how much more would be accomplished with a International Space Program...***

[Lazro]

Restart project Orion, NERVA, and Project daedalus.

[Bacterius]

I'd try to colonize the Moon somehow, setting up a permanent base and possibly creating some kind of biosphere. There's a lot of potential for scientific research there, and it really isn't that hard. I mean, we landed there decades ago. And also, by streamlining resource transfer from the Earth to the Moon and back, and installing a shipyard there, or in Moon orbit, we could make spaceflight very efficient. Then we design a fleet of interplanetary shuttles to go to Mars and create more colonies, and, if at all possible, rebuild a habitable atmosphere. Finally, I'd send plenty of very fast probes towards each exoplanet discovered, so that we can start collecting some serious data on them.

Once all this stuff is up and running, figuring out how to make the warp drive work should be a walk in the park, and the rest is history (or will be, anyway). However, if nothing works out and it turns out interstellar flight is truly impossible, the next best thing would be working out a way to protect our little corner of the galaxy against spacebound threats. Obviously not aliens, but stuff like civilization-ending asteroids and powerful solar flares.

[AmpsterMan]

I would have continued the Apollo Applications missions.

[Max Grant]

Manned missions to Jupiter and Saturn, to look at all those gorgeous, fascinating moons.

We could probably learn more from those two places than any others, with all the variety going on. It would be a gigantic dataset for humanity to work on, for a long, long time.

I also would send some super-sized telescopes into orbit, or have them built on the Moon. Maybe a pair of orbiting, 500-meter space telescopes (with detectors at ALL wavelengths) at opposite sides of some wide Solar orbit, so they could do long-baseline interferometry with a Mars-sized orbit.

With no budget, there are some wicked things we could do, that would open up the Universe enormously.

[el_coyoto]

- ´Thou shalt have great knowledge about the land!´

[...]

- ´What´s a paladin?´

[ultima IX]

You have unlimited funds - no need for ´return on investment´, dude.

Ah ah, true.

Okay, I'll rephrase it : I have an unlimited budget, the others don't... XD

[Sigma117]

First off, find a decent solution to Kessler syndrome before doing anything that could worsen it.

[HeadHunter67]

I'd send Man back to the Moon. We'd work towards a functional Moon baseand mine the Helium-3 there for use in propulsion. The next, long-term step would be preparation for Mars missions, with the goal of eventually establishing a colony there.

[Jackissimus]

I would concentrate on developing better propulsion methods. Much like SpaceX, but more basic research into the needed physical chemistry, materials science etc. So nuclear thermal engines, nuclear pulsed propulsion, launch loop, space elevator, SABRE, scramjet, ISRU plus methods for rapid reusability, mass production and cost cutting. In the meantime I would launch some awesome stuff into space using chemical rockets just to do some PR and generate more interest and funding.

[Martonaut]

I would develope space beer, so then I could put Bars on LEO

[Rainbowtrout]

Wait, no budget?

1. Asteroid mining

2. Antimatter propulsion

3. Moonbase

4. Mars

5. Terraforming of Venus/Mars

6. Titan Exploration

7. Interstellar travel

8. Colonizing many, many exoplanets

9. Intergalactic exploration

10. Somehow controlling the Universe!

Yeah, I like to keep myself busy.

[Spartwo]

Restart project orion.

[Kosmic Debris]

Stop building rockets, start building spacecraft. We need craft that are durable and reusable in space, both for exploration and useful work.

A "tug" to go between LEO and GEO and can service and return satellites to LKO.

A multi-mission, truly long-duration capable spacecraft like 2001's Discovery or Pegasus from BBC's Odyssey. NASA's SLS isn't it, IMHO.

A working ISS; more than science but manufacturing, satellite servicing and construction.

To me, all of our space exploration goals can be met over time with these basic building blocks. We've all built these things in KSP for exactly the same reasons we need them IRL.

Interestingly enough, this was all proposed in 1969...typical.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Transportation_System