Today, if someone performs a big feat like swimming across the great lakes, or crossing the Pacific in a big canoe no one would blink for more than a minute and then move on to the next days news cycle. It's this totally jaded outlook that makes space exploration seem futile and pointless.

Folks have things pretty good and when that is the case, they become risk averse. I hold that Russia always outdid us in space because of the hardship of daily life and the perks and prestige that were afforded to cosmonauts. When we had parades in NYC for returning astronauts sitting with the President that helped motivate a generation of astronauts. Star Trek and other shows of the sixties also helped motivate folks.

Perhaps ST TNG set us back. I, at the very first, was discomforted by the luxury and casualness that the new bridge and ship portrayed. Making space exploration seem like the luxury love boat in space, and led by an affected Shakespearean actor made spacemen 'wussies'. And anyone who desired this type of space exploration would be sorely put off by the reality of extended space travel.

The Disney people were geniuses. The art, music, sense of anticipation all helped to sell space like no one had ever sold it. Walt Disney was sold on 'tomorrow' better than anyone and did all in his power to help make the best of the 'visions of tomorrow' come true. It was grim business, not casual.

Standing in line in the early 70s for a trip to mars at Disneyland was an event. The folks in the line had the same sense of anticipation, had been exposed to much the same PR and space visions. Ask any of them if we would not have set a man on Mars by 2006 and they would be incredulous, because it was obvious that by 2006 we would have colonies on the moon, mars and be busy exploring the solar system. That the ride aborted you enroute was perhaps the big disappointment, a disappointment that would later be mirrored in our abandonment of manned planetary exploration.

The truth is fine, but the problem is it has been dished out in such unappealing, unimaginative ways and often by folks who really dont want us to go to space or spend money on space exploration. Fortunately Bush is a manned space guy, whether his efforts will reap results are still a big IF. Today's kids and adults prefer simulated adventures rather than real ones, and with games like the SIMS it is apparent some folks prefer to live in an artificial world they can control rather than a real one which challenges them and makes them feel powerless.

Eventually the tide will turn again and we will return from a soft, fat nation addicted to our chairs and a generation will be born that will reject computers, games and simulations and seek real life exploration again. It's only a matter of time.