I guess I could call myself part of the younger generation, and I'm idealistic about the future of the American space program and devoted to the importance of space research, in no small part thanks to the air of excitement and interest in the shuttle program when I was growing up in the 1980s. My dad lead a chapter of Young Astronauts, and I was fortunate enough to attend Space Camp.

I agree with Michael--things haven't happened fast enough.

Sorry, Michael... no disrespect intended. It's just hard to express how spellbound the whole world was duing that time.

Although there is excitement still (from some), it's more based in reality, focusing on the adventure or technical achievement aspects...as opposed to seeing a fairy tale come true right before your eyes. Remember, jet air travel was still in its infancy...and there we were on the moon.

Going to Mars would conjure that magic again. So will time travel someday (when the loop quantum gravity theory becomes reality).

If they invent time travel I'm grabbing a bunch of DV tapes, one of these new dv cams, and some sort of neverending battery pack (if we can time travel we sure can make an everlasting battery), and heading back to make documentaries about historical events as they happen.

Specifically I'd like to find out who shot JFK, where in the desert of nevada they shot the footage 'from the moon' in 1969 ;) and what folks like Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed actually said and get them all on record. I'm guessing as there was no copyright legislation at the time that I won't even have to get anyone to sign releases.

Imran,

That's the clencher about the loop quantum gravity theory...you'd never be able to go back beyond the time that the "device" was first started.

I read that one thing that they've considered is that, if making such a time travel device is someday possible, that it's likely that when they turn it on for the first time, there will be an avalanche of people from the future arriving to witness the historic event. How cool is that?

None taken! But yeah I wish we could have that sense of exploration back again. I was only able to experience the very tail end of it.

Im thinking that if we hook up the BIG canon lens (seen on the XL1s page) with all the extenders then we can video the guys bouncing around up there.

That wold be fun.

We might even be able to find the man on the moon too.