Two Tramps In Mud Time

I wonder what would have happened if space was a tangible frontier. In that small sliver of time when there was an American Frontier we had the myth at arms length and the proximity compelled anyone and everyone to consider its' potential. Was the immediacy of the frontier the compulsion, a niggling sense of the other side, ever constant in the periphery of one's vision?Would our history of space exploration have been different if we had an Oregon Trail to Mars, if it could have been about space colonization? If you imagine the frontier as a sponge which absorbs the excess and luckless then it is no surprise that high entry costs have prevented the expansion of mankind. It is the hardup, the deviant, the desperate, and the dreamers who live and die out there because they can't even manage just living here in polite company. Half these songs are about getting out there, the other half are about freaking out.  This has little bearing on things, except that I desire to escape - and space seems like the last best