The overwhelmingly positive response to 'Curiosity's' landing on Mars, and
seeing the Space Shuttles fly overhead on their way to their final homes, proves two things;
1) People still care, a lot, about the exploration of space.
2) People want to see something physical.
People want to see things happening. the more physical results you have, the more excited and vocal in their
enthusiasm they will be. You can't get excited by suggesting what might happen in a few years. You
have to do things NOW. Not later, right now.
As the shuttle flies over LA, on twitter I'm seeing people react with both love
and by saying space exploration is over. Its NOT over, not at all. Space exploration is only over if you let it be so. NASA, while criminally
under financed, isn't stopping. And the number of space ready groups in this world is only increasing. So the Space age isn't over, it's only just begun. And how dare anyone say
otherwise.