space?

hey guys
long time no post
been busy doing uni work etc

i been doing doing a lot of reading (some of it on wikipedia which i obviously dont take too seriously!) about space elevators, ion drives and future space exploration etc

im very interested in space as a whole not nessesarilly UFO's et al. but more the general human exploration side
now im 20 years old so if i live to be 80 it will be 2067 im just wondering what your opinions are on what we will see in our lifetimes in regard to space exploration. I mean im fairly sure we will see the first men on mars and perhaps the begining of space tourism with space hotels etc (just look at what Richard branson is planning for virgin galactic!)

PS! im not interested in an arguement about fake moon landings, aliens etc im just asking you as from my experience this forum tends to be a fine group of minds who give good logical answers

cheers

tom

I reckon I think the same as you. The beginning of space tourism and men on Mars. Perhaps we will discover a few more Earth-like planets, and even find a life-supporting habitat on one of our Solar Systems moons, but that's about all. I mean, short of manned travel outside our Solar System, what other amazing feats can we do? They were kinda all done last century, so I think this one will be a building block for what we can do in the next 1 or 2 centuries. We need some major advancements engine wise, mainly, and now seems a good time to start that, with the fairly advanced technology that's emerging in that sort of area.

I hope they make a start on that space elevator soon, as well.

As far as space explorations in our life times. . I hope to see interplanetary airline type travel to be able to broaden our vaction taking abilitys. I think that would be cool to have a summer home on a moon of jupiter or something. .