Currently watching a documentary on Project Orion - Mars by 1965, Saturn by 1970....
People knew how to dream back then. What went wrong? Today, we have less capability for spaceflight (certainly manned exploration) than we had in the 1960s. And our dreams are so, so small: maybe in ten, twenty, thirty years, just maybe, we might perhaps go to Mars, if only it weren't so expensive, if only it weren't so dangerous, if only it weren't so environmentally unfriendly, if only, if only, if only.
Why did we lose this? Why did we regress? What happened to our balls? How did we manage to betray ourselves so spectacularly?