Introduction
Since the end of NASA’s Apollo Program, no human has set foot on another heavenly body besides that of Earth. Current discussions about the future of human space exploration center around the possibility of going to Mars either after or instead of going to the moon, and space advocacy groups cannot easily reach a consensus on what the priorities of the international space exploration community in the next several decades should be.
As these groups deliberate on the goals of future exploration missions, the justifications which advocates of various opinions use often do not even involve discovery itself. Appeals to colonization, extraction of energy, and profit find their ways into the portfolios of many proponents of missions beyond low-earth orbit. The variety of their opinions and perspectives reflects the lack of direction which has characterized American space exploration since the days of Apollo.
This analysis uses network analysis tools to investigate the relationships between the actors in this controversy and then employs the resulting information on these networks to further understand the interests and motivations of each class of actors. An analysis of the rhetoric used in defense of various exploration programs follows, and a consideration of the actors' attempts to capture the public's favor completes the study.