| That was inspiring. Unfortunately, it's wrong. The 1960s was the only time of hope for space exploration, and that turned out to be a false start, sort of like how the Norse had a false start in discovering the New World. The last Apollo missions were cancelled, for lack of interest, so the retreat had already begun by then. The Russians, who used to have a permanently occupied Space Station, have seen their effort collapse, along with their entire society. The Shuttle was supposed to be a safe, reliable, cheap way to get to low earth orbit, and it doesn't meet any of those specifications. Today, we do not have the machines or personnel to do what we could do 35 years ago (go to the moon). Watching what's happened this generation to space exploration, the Soviet Union, and the entire African continent, should shake any informed person's belief in the idea of Inevitable Human Progress. Sagan is a dreamer. There are long stretches of history in which Progress doesn't happen, and we are in one of them, as far as space exploration. Human ingenuity is concentrated on small inner things (semiconductors, genes), not big Out There things, and that'll probably continue for a while, maybe a century or two. When it changes, then we will have the Heroic Generation of Space Exploration. Maybe my grandchildren will see it. |
