h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That's the question I've often heard posed - has mankind reached its highest point already? When's the last time Concorde flew, or a person walked on the moon? Are we still working to iron out all those creases - microfractures, damaged O rings, missing re-entry tiles?

In fact, how can true interplanetary travel take place unless all of humanity works together for a common cause? Star Trek has humanity united and does away with the concept of money and provides boundless supplies of power and thus endless oxygen and food, plus gravity generators and transporters. All that seems a long way off, if not impossible.

Alex

We colonised in the past as small nation states. Greeks, Romans, Brits all did the "travel further than you can imagine and make a new start" mentality.

I'm not sure all of humanity has to be united - even though I would be a great supporter of that.

Capturing energy and finding efficient means to move is the key, isn't it. I think in time we will look at early rockets in the same way as we look at the cumbersome steam engines of early motor cars compared with, say, a Tessla sports car or other developing high spec electric vehicle.

We've reached the state of cars being able to travel around on virtually free energy if you can attach a small wind turbine to your garage roof.

I remember the sci-fi plans of years ago which used the moon as a base for sending exploratory craft on great flights because there was not the earths gravitational pull to overcome at the beginning of the journey. Has that idea been abandoned?

I don't think so - the Americans still seem keen on a moon base to launch a mission to Mars from. There's just no particular push for it to happen - either we need competition, which tends to be based upon war and is thus quite destructive, or we need the huge technological breakthroughs you hint at. The question is, will space be conquered by warmongers or scientists?

Or warmongering scientists