But we did the internet. Personally I think it's an accident of human history that space exploration came before the information age. It would have gone the other way if not for the Cold War.
The internet is mainly a set of protocols and business rules humans created. Space exploration has to tackle rules the universe created. Much different story.
If a set of rules is created (or emerges for you Hayekians) whereby there is significant incentive for the creation of increments contributing to overall advancement, we will advance in space exploration.
The cold war was such system. The next one will (hopefully) be more peaceful & market driven. Space flights for tourism provide a few of these increment. Asteroid-mining might be another. Military probably has a few more to play.
None of these have been paying much dividends in the last 30-40 years.
The of protocols and business rules humans create may be capitalism (or some sort of cousin). The rules the universe created need to be tackled no matter what we do.
