Read this interesting article on the economist website: http://www.economist.com/node/18897425.
Basically it claims that today's nations lack the incentive to go into space and therefore the Space Age is coming to a natural end. It provides plenty of evidence for this thesis. America is decommissioning its shuttles as the International Space Station is reaching the end of its operational lifetime. Russia has exited the field entirely as it has had other things to worry about since its early Cold War triumphs.
This could just mean the drive for space research and exploration has shifted to more energetic developing nations but the author is sceptical about this. While China claims it will push some of its hefty economic muscle towards a Moon landing he sees it as none too eager to set concrete dates for this mission or contemplate further space exploration beyond this goal.
He sees private enterprise as no more promising. Space tourism has been bandied around as a concept for years but remains a high-end luxury for a wealthy minority. The costs become exorbitent once you leave low-Earth orbit, making it a bit of a dead end in view of long term space exploration or colonisation.
Instead the author pins his hopes on continued development of the 'technosphere'. With a smugness that could only come from someone accustomed to being on the right side of the satellite-guided smart bombs, he praises the advances in warfare and communication brought by the increasing artificial presence in near-Earth space.
This is all true as far as it goes. However, I think he underestimates the extent that we should be worried about this. He seems to believe that humanity has a viable future in further building up the 'technosphere' and rarely venturing beyond. He likens this possible future to Antarctic scientists who relax in heated research bases with food supplies and consumer luxuries between exploratory missions. In the same way, he says, man will predominantly stick to building in near-Earth orbit and only send the occasional probe beyond.
This would be fine if the analogy held. However, in the case of the Earth (and attendant satellite zone) it is unclear that it does. The author's hypothetical Antarctic base will continue to be provided with the food and goods it needs for as long as the owners can afford to run it. The population is kept stable or if not provisions are made for the feeding and comfort of new arrivals. Although this base may be expensive to heat and maintain there is little physical threat to it after it has been set up. Antarctica is demilitarized and engineers are ingenious in dealing with the challenges of extreme cold and changeable weather conditions.
Earth, in the long run, is in a completely different situation. Unlike the demographically stable Antarctic base it has to cope with the demands of a populations that seems to grow faster every century. Barring a super-Malthusian disaster, the population of the Earth is likely to eventually reach the stage where even if resources were distributed based on absolute necessity (a situation that certain influential sections of our society seem to have little interest in attaining anyway) there will not be enough to go around. The likely consequences of mass starvation, global war and spreading pandemics should surely be enough to motivate today's nation states to spend adequately on space exploration.
Earth is also vulnerable to physical attack. Not, of course, in the B-movie sense of alien invasion but from the far more likely threat of a collision with an asteroid. Scientists agree that there have been large impacts in the past, which may have contributed to mass extinctions. Space travel is the only credible way to escape this risk of total annihilation. If we do ever see an asteroid approaching I'm sure we will be glad if we have prepared methods for evacuation. At the very least settlements on other planets would have a chance of allowing the human race to survive such a catastrophe.
Therefore, the author might be better off attempting to drum up some support for projects that attempt to escape Earth's gravity well rather than focussing on past technological successes. The nationalist drive of the Cold War to inspire space missions may have faded but it is in the interest of the entire human race that such projects and research continue.
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