A hard lesson in the study of starbursts has been that their scales and complexities push the limits of instrumental spatial resolution even in nearby systems. For instance, it is difficult: (a) to measure the diameters of SSC's (~ 2-10 pc) in order to obtain reliable mass and IMF inferences; (b) to study superwind substructures in nearby starbursts and to determine host morphologies in distant ones; and (c) to obtain kinematics of starbursts on the appropriate physical scales.
The Hubble Space Telescope has been the mainstay of high resolution (~ 0.05") imaging and spectroscopy for 14 years. An informal count shows that over half the contributions in this conference relied in some way on HST data. But HST will not last much more than another 6 years even if NASA can find a safe way of servicing it. In the foreseeable future, we will have the EVLA and ALMA for high-resolution radio/mm observations and JWST and ground-based AO systems for high resolution near and mid-IR observations. However, it is doubtful that AO systems will operate well for 1µ. Unfortunately, there are no current plans to replace or improve (to ~ 0.01"?) high resolution optical/UV capability in space. It is vital to remedy that situation.