I don't think it's old news but countries have a lot of their own **** to sort out economy wise before they go splashing billions on more space programs. I mean we had the Mars rover which has been really good and it seems the enthusiasm for a manned mission to Mars is rising.
However saying that I think it's going to need private companies who believe they can make money from space exploration, via tourism (especially once its cheap enough to cost a few thousand for the passengers) and mineral resources.
I suppose one issue is that in some ways the distance of any decent exploration makes it infeasible, it's a couple of years to get to Mars, let alone trying to send people to the gas giants moons. I think the development of much faster propulsion systems would raise the level of interest greatly.