Interesting discussion. I think the dream is still there. As the manufacturing costs of building and launching a space rocket decrease we can expect more private companies to go into the space industry. We have to see that today we still need big amounts of money to do space exploration and only the space agencies have the necessary resources. In the next few years we’ll see a shift in that. Space tourism to the moon will be a reality.

But it will be kind of nice to have the iPad on your lap while you’re traveling to the moon :)

“science and everyday life should not be separated” — Rosalind Franklin

If most people are forgetting our dream of new worlds it may be partially because those with money are not investing in it (most of them at least, Richard Branson & Ca. for instance have been pioneers) and rather in something else. People prefer to divert their attention to something that makes them feel good now, something immediate, than to despair over a dream that lost its momentum (and been losing funding?) since the Cold War and requires decades of planning without the immediate reward most of society is now addicted to.

No wonder ‘Defying Gravity’ was cancelled. :(