Frankly, I gave up some of that dreaming because largely I realised that dreaming isn't that much fun when realism pokes it out of you. Yet, I will make an attempt to voice my passionate dreaming, in the hope of infecting others, in the hope of changing reality. To realise that nothing has moved forward in humanities space effort since the days of Apollo is one really depressing fact! Ironic being, that the Cold War was the most powerful impetus in the advance of the space race solely for political gains between two of the greatest opposed ideologies.

Yet in this day and age, as most people have pointed out more or less, there is absolutely nothing happening to open up space. We have been stuck in lower orbit of this planet for the greatest part of our space attempts.

Mind you, we should not really consider those attempts as 'ours'. Remember, NASA grew out of the need to oppose Russia during the Cold War days, otherwise American were to have faced political humiliation and have been deemed inferior to its rival.

Today, after the Cold War, NASA is just another relic. They did a good job at starting it, but they are long overdue. Government funding for NASA is pitiful. No statesmen cares about any attempts to provide the resources that are needed to finally go out there to where we ultimately need to be going.

These are people who believe that building the ISS is a great step forward. Well, I think we all know how we feel about that big white elephant in the sky. For every government body, the military and the intelligence services are still priority number one when it comes to funding. And with current events going the way they are, this will not change for a very long time to come.

Space has taken the back seat for too long now. I want this to change. Therefore we must definitely stop in hoping for any government or NASA to take the next step. They've blown it! Back in the early space days, it seemed like we were doing this together. It almost seemed like people felt united in what could have been described a combined effort to begin opening up the doors of space, even if it was a heated race between two rivals.

Yet, it gave rise to elements such as the Children of Apollo, who are a manifestation of fantastic promises which are still today, after being long overdue, just that - fantastic!

We are in now way close to breaking any ground in space exploration. To be frank, for me, there currently is no such thing as 'space exploration'. Sending probes here and there is in no way exploration. That's simply making an excuse for oneself today! And do not come yapping about there being no money and funding!

Where there's a will, there's a way! That's the blunt truth! And we keep making fools of ourselves when we look towards others to do what we should now begin doing for ourselves. We need to grab the initiative. It's time to get back again what we have lost! Under the threat of sounding like Oprah, I must confess, it's time to find our spirit - our spirit of pioneering and exploration! We've pretty much figured out that NASA is politically dead. It will not receive any conceivable boost to its funding by the American government in the foreseeable future. Politicians do not care about space, unless there is hogwash talk of 'missile shields' and the smell of Cold War rivalry wafting in the air. So, as many have said before, that route is pretty much a dead end.

Yet we have discovered that the common consensus among us is that we, the people, the space community, need to finally get our hands dirty and to stop moaning about the lack of government funding and the inability of NASA to open up fronts as it did in the 1960's and 70's. Obviously we have come to realise that as a community our common goal is to pave the way for cheap space travel. Therefore, space needs to be PRIVATISED. Privatisation has always helped to bring prices down. Investor interest needs to be awakened. Space offers an abundance in resources and potential, so why shouldn't there be any interest?

Get the media to hype up public interest once again, because space is interesting when done right and with an enthusiasm like the big boys did back in the day - dreamers can easily get others to dream along! And when enough people share the same dream, than things begin taking shape.

So let the public begin to dream once more of the great and infinite possibilities that space offers our minds, as great women and men could be propelled to heights of admiration as they become the pioneers of the new frontier.

We need to think BIG, because this is a human undertaking and cannot be ever achieved in any other way. Keep it small and we will always move at the snails pace as we have been experiencing for the last decades. Think 'cost-saving' and you are definitely not going to get your money's worth! In seeing our reality, we have come to loose our drive. Our spirit to face the frontier, as pioneers. Think back to those very first pioneers, the sailors who were crazy enough to spend months if not years on the great wide oceans, facing the harshest conditions to conquest the sea. Nobody cared about the stakes, because to most people, it was obvious to state that that is where the wealth was to be found.

In spite of the odds, those daredevils braved the seven sees and the great unknown to make a buck, even in the hopes of striking it rich. And sure enough, that was enough to drive them helping to open up the sea ways and discovering the world. And sure enough in some cases, there really was a buck to be made as the spice routes between Europe and Asia began to flourish. Even those who were persecuted in Europe soon found their way onto mainland America, in the hope of finding a new life for themselves. Those were whole families who dared to face the odds of uncertainty, travellling for endless months across the barren and storming seas, living on stale foods and water.

These people were at most driven by desperation forced into exile, but they were simply hoping for a better lifes for themselves in what was then called the New World. Today, we have been standing at the doorway of just such a new world for years, yet NASA has failed to continue its drive to really explore. And that really is not its fault. Governments are simply not interested. ...But we are! I simply know, that if there is no one who dares to pick up a daredevil attitude, and to look the odds in the eye, then we'll be stuck on this planet by the time this globe will be on the verge of self destruction and inhabitable because of our arrogant ways. This article is probably something many of those people who consider themselves the practical kind will want to ridicule, because I may simply be a young minded guy, sitting in what many people regard a third world country, South Africa, who has no Diploma to vouch for any specialised space or tech knowledge! But dare you say that it is simply crazy to think like this, and I will tell you straight once again, that it is the only way to think!

Because the world does not care about technical details and how or why we should venture out there! Deep down it just knows that space is the right way to go and ultimately that is where we need to be heading at all costs.

That thought needs to be rekindled within humanity, because in these pointless debates of how and why, we fail to relight what has been extinguished as our petty attempts have well disillusioned me and the most of the rest of the world. Get the point across to the average Joe out there, because I am ready to face the odds. And I'm sure that he too is. What I am trying to say is this: if we really want to see results, we must now come to a point where we are willling to push one hundred percent. Thinking small, as politicians all over seem to wish to satisfy us with, is in no means an attempt at one hundred percent!

We need to become daredevils who face wish to face the odds. Scream out and let the rest of the world hear us, and I am sure they will scream along, because space exploration is a natural urge. I am sick of wishing or even hoping for bureaucrats to decide when it will be time to go forth to the promised land. I wanted to be there yesterday and it is all way overdue!

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