Neil Armstrong

So Neil Armstrong has died.

I seriously wonder whether I will see the day in my lifetime when the last person to have walked on the moon dies.  There seems little prospect of anybody else landing on the moon.  Or anywhere.

I am very disappointed with the future.  I want my moon holidays, my flying cars, robo-maids and hoverboards.  Not to mentions sex bots.

All we've got spacewise at the moment is a big rover on Mars.  A not  insignificant achievement, but certainly with little possibility of anything interesting being found.  Robots first landed on Mars in the 70s.

The essential problem is that it is impossible to make money out of space.  Nobody could possibly make money going to the moon again, let alone Mars or somewhere further away.  That means governments, and in the current economic climate (and, I suspect, the climate for many years to come) governments will not possibly be able to consider the costs of putting on on such an immense and useless project.