Let's Play Politics

One problem with making the case to the politicals is that as soon as
you have made a good case for, say, powersats, somebody else will
come along and make a case for something else.

"We need to do a moonbase!"

"Forget the moon; we need to mine asteroids!"

"Mars! Mars! Skip this little stuff and do Mars!"

"We need to do a moonbase because it *enables* Mars stuff!"

"Screw the moon! We can do Mars without it!"

"Powersats? Anybody remember that great case I made for powersats?"

"Unmanned exploration is where all the *real* science is!"

And so forth. What we need to do is to identify one thing, without
which it is difficult to do powersats, moonbase, habitats, Mars, or
asteroid mining. Identify the thing that, if it is proposed, the
various space groups can look at and say, "Yeah, that'll make
powersats/Mars exploration/asteroid mining/moonbase/habitats/unmanned
exploration a lot easier and cheaper."

Then tell your Dems and Reps and Libs and Greens and whatever else
that THIS THING is what is important, and have all the other space
fans back you up.

I nominate CATS.