Lately seen a lot more interest and talk in where space exploration is going with SpaceX and to a lesser degree Blue Origin and their advancements in rocket re-usability. Seems the claim is the biggest roadblock in space exploration is the cost to get anything to space and that a significant amount of the cost of a rocket is the first stage that till now has been thrown away after each use. There is no doubt the videos of the the large(over 150ft tall) SpaceX first stage landing on land and sea barge is really "cool" will the cost savings these companies add really be enough to motivate man to seek out asteroids and Mars or is it just hype over some cool looking technology? Elon Musk seems really into going to Mars but if he is the one footing the bill and can not find profitability in going does he remain so committed? When I was a kid Space seemed an adventure and exciting and represented Man doing great things with technology, but guess in many ways once all commercial and military gains had been realized we seemed to lose interest and has really much advancement happened since the space shuttle first launched? The US currently does not even have a means to but a man in space. SLS is being worked on by NASA and contractors but in someways only further displays part of what went wrong with the shuttle program with blotted cost that make anything beyond required seem wasteful. I for one hope that there is a revitalization of or quest for space exploration I think pushing what we can do is good for the species and suspect at some point hopefully a long way away down the road our ability to exist off this rock could prove critical.
Here are some cool rocket recovery videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glEvogjdEVYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYmQQn_ZSys