Should the 2010s have gotten a bigger and more inspirational space program?

[CmdrShepN7]

1950s-70s kids got the race to the Moon which inspired many of them to go into science and engineering which ended up giving us the 1990s tech boom.

1980s and 90s kids had the "Space Shuttle" and "Hubble".

When I was in high school and college during the late 2000s to mid 2010s I remember the Curiosity rover and first reuse of the Falcon 9.





I think we needed reusable rockets but were the achievements of the 2010s as inspirational as Apollo? Did it inspire young people like Apollo did for the 1960s generation?

It was also sad the optimistic space adventure on TV was absent for much of the 2010s.

Did the 2010s need a big Apollo sized program with huge international and commercial support?

A push to Mars?


Or return to the Moon?

[intelati]

*Should* have? A lot of things *should* happen, but looking back at it wouldn't change anything.

Let's look at today's biggest stories. (Space tech is hard, and takes years to come to speed)

2019 was the Launch of the Falcon Heavy. I think that's a demonstratable part of the biggest theme through the 2010s. "Commercial Spaceflight"

Now, is that a flagship to hang your hat on? I'd argue no. But, big things happened in the 2010s, even as much as it seems like it's a transitional decade.

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[Barley]

A good space program quietly gets things done.  It is not inspirational.  Things like Hubble, or Cassini, or working toilets on the ISS get things done.  They may inspire some people, but they are not "inspirational".

In all walks of life heroism is overrated and competence is not rated at all.  We should leave the heroism on the sports field, a zero-sum game where it can do no harm.  In other walks of life heroic effort is a symptom of system failure, not something to be celebrated.

[libra]

A push to Mars?

That video is completely awesome. Thanks for that link !

[Vahe231991]

*Should* have? A lot of things *should* happen, but looking back at it wouldn't change anything.

Let's look at today's biggest stories. (Space tech is hard, and takes years to come to speed)

2019 was the Launch of the Falcon Heavy. I think that's a demonstratable part of the biggest theme through the 2010s. "Commercial Spaceflight"

Now, is that a flagship to hang your hat on? I'd argue no. But, big things happened in the 2010s, even as much as it seems like it's a transitional decade.

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The 2010s, despite seeing the retirement of the Space Shuttle, saw the launch of the first privately-funded multi-stage SLV in the form of the Falcon rocket along with the first launches of America's newest manned spaceships, the Dragon 2 and Starliner. Also, North Korea won the Korean space race when it launched the Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 2 into orbit in 2012 after three failed launches (including the April 2012 launch attempt involving Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 1), and China became the third country to launch a homegrown space station to take advantage of its rivalry with American and Europe in the security arena. Since the SLS rocket is about to go through final preparations for its maiden launch, the Starship is one step away from its first orbital launch given that SpaceX has to make a few changes to the Starbase launch site for the Starship, and Dragon 2 has made several manned flights, even while the Boeing Starliner is being prepared for its first manned mission on the coattails of NASA being relieved at the OFT-2 mission being successful, the 2020s could receive an ultra-inspirational space program in terms of the first orbital launches of 300+ foot tall SLVs since the 1970s and the golden space of privately owned space flight.