OT: space age (was Re: [sdiy] the function of neon lamps?)

[Rainer Buchty]

>just another comment, off topic... as someone born in the 50's, to 
>associate 'space age' and 'science fiction' with a quaint silly past 
>that had fantasies of exploring the planets... 'Forbidden Planet' 
>etc.... just seems a bit sad..  I mean, we're sending pictures from 
>Titan, right?  Knowledge for it's own sake and all?

Sad part is that despite any progress (most notably in the field of 
microelectronics) we are still no step further than back in the 60s.

It would still take 3 days to the Moon and Mars is still way out of 
reach, even for a one-way trip.

Sure, NASA and ESA mastered playing cosmic billard and did a brilliant 
job on Mars exploration, probing Titan, doing comet rendez-vous... In 
other terms we're far behind and it's getting worse and worse:

- MIR abandoned in favor of ISS (which currently just costs money)
- Hubble to be abandoned in favor of JWST (even though JWST is literally 
  blind compared to Hubble's range)
- Shuttle pretty much grounded

Looks like the genetic engineers need to do their homework so I will be
still alive when manned exploration of the solar system takes place --
and they're searching colonists for Moon or Mars (or Titan, for that
matter;  after all it looks like a great candidate: water, oxygene,
organic chemicals, thick enough athmosphere -- all in place, so all you
basically need is heat).

Rainer