OK, so I'm a geek and I'm incredibly excited about New Horizons finally reaching Pluto. When I was in elementary school, every few years National Geographic would have these awesome issues on Jupiter, Mars, Uranus, the space probes and maps of an entirely unexplored planet!! Olympus Mons, volcanoes on Io, methane lakes on Titan. The Russian Venus landers were cool as well.
In more recent years, the Japanese landed on a comet. Multiple heartbreaks and triumphs on Mars. Deep Space One marked the beginnings of turning space SF into reality. The Lunar X-prize and the commercialization of space.
Still, there were so many big dream disappointments in (Earth's) space program. A space station that's more than a curiosity. Lunar return mission(s). Permanent lunar base. A space station in a Lagrange point. Exploitation of cycler orbits. The dead-end space shuttle program, Buran as well. People out of Earth's gravity well on a regular basis.
Even if New Horizons pancakes on an asteroid after flying 3 billion miles it is already an inspiration. Or at least a breath toward keeping big dreams alive.
So, is anyone else excited by this?
