The last few Apollo missions became routine. No water, no life, just dust and rocks. Maybe we should be getting kids interested in Geology so rocks and dust have meaning. The real excitement in Mars exploration comes from unraveling the geologic history of Mars and adding to the understanding of the creation of Earth and the solar system. Finding life would be a bonus.

Skylab held our interest for a long time. There were T-shirts and model rockets and the point was we were learning to live in space. We hooked up with our Archenemies the Soviets, giving us some hope that we might not destroy ourselves, a very real fear in children at the time.

The shuttle? Most people long ago gave up getting out of bed at 4:00 am to watch the launches. The launches became routine like watching airliners take off and land.

The ISS? Older people (Who control our Media) might be looking at it as an overgrown Skylab. Nothing new except EVA’s. The Hubble provided some drama with the corrective “surgery” performed on it in space. Seeing the Chinese invovled would be something new.

When I was a kid my favorite book was “Someday you will go to the Moon!”(1967) Well it’s probably too late for me, but for today’s kid’s, seeing celebrities like Bass in space might bring the dream closer to reality.