I think the next big spur is going to be about mining resources. The discovery of lunar water is likely to be a focus of a manned return, up to and including a permanent presence there. It would serve as a way-station to other planets and particularly the mineral-rich asteroids.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
