Agreed. Against all reason, I was kinda hoping that the Pioneer Anomaly would somehow lead us to FTL travel... Something like: "Hey, I think I figured out the Pioneer Anom... [pause...] Ooooohhhh!"
I was hopping that this would lead to us sending out plenty of extra-solar-system probes so we could perform more wacky measurements like the pioneer ones.
I think the only qualitative way to guarantee research progress is through the expansion of the things we can sense/ perceive. For example, if we want to understand space better, I don't think another near earth telescope is the answer, but rather several that float at the edge of our solar system.
I am also excited about IPN- the Interplanetary Internet by Tim Burners Lee. So that there is a standard way for these crafts to communicate and relay messages as they get really far out.
