I remember vividly the first steps upon the moon, the voyage, transmissions. NASA invented the first compact video recorder, among other things. Much of which was through our dishes here in Australia to be transmitted back to the US, then to the world, also through those temporary set up NASA, one which we visited not far from here on a school excursion during the flight. Australia was once one of the leading space agencies in the world...then we changed government, and much of our technology was sold off to other nation such as India and others.
It wasn't long after that the camera became a world wide sensation, to allow us to capture and view in our own homes film we documented on the day.....which led us to the cams that are the on the everyday devices we use now.
Was just the other day the International Space Station was hit by space debris, luckily it struck the arm, and not the areas of life support, I believe if we are not careful with the amount we are launching into orbit, it has the potential to trap us here on Earth.
To this day I don't believe we will explore the Universe via physical means. Just recently the plan is to create miniature machines powered via laser to do the exploring for us.
I think some time ago I mentioned this here, using lasers to power craft.......but to be honest my thinking is using the power of lasers for more is on the horizon. I'll just have to at some point get around to writing the ideas in my mind for a good sci fi read. For lasers to work they need an uninterrupted stream. It will not happen if it is constantly interrupted by debris in orbit. It would mean constant calibrations of which at this point in time, not capable of keeping up as we can only track debris of a certain dimension.
We are a little speck in the middle of a vast space, at any time, as it has in the past, be wiped out. We are fast approaching a place were we will be able to explore vast reaches without the need to physically 'be there'.
Just recently also, the discovery of Dark Energy, the only energy which has the ability to escape Black Holes, the energy which basically holds the Universe together. Maybe, once we understand it's properties, the ability to harness it................we may find we can go anywhere.
