The Chicken and the Egg

In many areas of technology, it's easy to see how investment leads to development and development leads to greater investment, in a system of positive feedback.  Early investments in cell phone technology, for instance, led to the development of better cell phones, which led to wider adoption, which in turn led to increased investment in cell phone technology.  Since the end of the Apollo program, however, this process has been fairly stunted in terms of space-related technology, but there are signs that the industry (or, at least, some elements of the space industry) may be turning a corner, and cheaper access to space (see: reusable rockets) may help to drive expanding investment and development on a rapidly increasing scale.