Agreed, unfortunately meaningful projects such as this are not a high priority for the US electorate (and thus the US Congress) [1]. My hope is that growing interest by college students in STEM subjects [2] will ultimately lead to an increased understanding of the importance of these projects in the long term.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA
[2] https://www.stemconnector.org/sites/default/files/store/STEM...