Have you ever tried to find the amount of manhours NASA spends doing things? By my estimation, more than twenty years in manhours was spent arguing if it's okay to put blue Loctite on large bolts. I'm serious:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/ca...0110011064.pdf

At the current blistering pace, NASA might get off their conference calls and 600-person CC chains by the time the sun ballooning into a red giant becomes a legitimate concern. I guess what I'm saying is that if we do see humanity traverse the gap, it will be for commercial reasons. Money has a way of lubricating even the most bureaucratic of machines.