You raise an interesting point. I'm not certain that disclosure will come through commercial spaceflight, however discoveries are certain to be
made.
Commercial spaceflight will mark an important milestone along our path of development into off-world activity. But in my view, the big discoveries
should start rolling in at about the time that Private Spaceflight hits the scene (should be the next revolution in space-flight, post commercial).
When private citizens are able to afford their own personal space-craft (like we do with automobiles here on the surface) then those interesting in
research will have the means to do so first-hand.
There are so many questions we have about our solar system, it's past and it's present.
I'm particularly interested in the 'Voyager Anomaly', and how this effect will be observed by humans when we finally make it to the edge of the
heliosphere.
I'm certain that new discoveries will be made though through commercial spaceflight ventures. The Ocean makes a great comparison here...
Government Spaceflight = The Swimming Pool, we are afforded a limited look at what's 'allowed' to be there. Data from Government Spaceflight can
easily be quarantined, and sterilized, just like the control we exert over our own swimming pools. No life, just a place it's okay for the 'kids'
to go.
Commercial Spaceflight = Playing on the beach, and swimming in the tides. While it's a whole lot harder to 'control' what's available for the
public to see (and understand) with commercial spaceflight, we are still actually sending humans 'out there' at least to the borderlands, to explore
and investigate on their own. It's a huge step in the right direction, but just like the beaches along the California Coast, there will still always
be a 'public zone' for just anybody to wander into (more sanitized, less to see and do) and an 'elite zone' for those with 'access' like the
private beaches in Santa Monica. At any rate, this is the place I believe commercial spaceflight will take us. We'll be there to look and listen,
but we still won't have independent control over where we get to go and what we get to research.
Private Spaceflight = Taking your own submarine into the deep and looking for the giant octopus in person. While I'm all for the other various
levels of progress, this stage should be our true goal, and I believe it's also the very LAST thing that NASA wants to see happen. We need to be
able to research without restrictions, and to report to the public the raw data that we find. Until there are humans out there (preferably private
citizens, not beholden to a government or corporation) I really have a hard time believing that ANYTHING has been thoroughly investigated. Yes, our
robots are pretty neat, but compared to a human with reasoning capacity, they're the equivalent of a walking security camera.
At any rate, that's my take, thanks for making me think this morning
I haven't seen you in a while Kronos, nice to read one of your threads again!
-WFA