My Hovercar Broke!

There's something wrong with my Space Age! I have no jet pack, no hover-car, no bionics, and no space station in L4, or L5, to go visit! This blows syphilitic donkey cocks in manure pools during a heat wave in Death Valley- not to put too fine a point on it. What happened to my future?

Technically, we still live in the SPACE AGE!, but practically the SPACE AGE! was over 36 year ago- when the last Apollo mission landed on the moon. Since then, we've stayed in relatively close-Earth orbits. We have done some very breathtaking things- like put Hubble up, then fix her, put robots on Mars, put robots near/on/in Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Sol, the Asteroid Belt, various comets, and the moons of various planets. Not to mention the amount of satellites. Just think, less than 60 years ago nothing man-made existed in space, and today we have objects that are "more distant from the Sun than any known natural solar system object" according to the wikiGoodness. So, technically, we're still in the SPACE AGE!- because you're either in the SPACE AGE! or you're pre-SPACE AGE!; but practically we're not actually in "space". Still not convinced?

Imagine a room full of people, and a common social game starts. It's the game of one-ups-man-ship. Someone starts with "I'm originally from a country that everyone in the world learns about due to it's historical significance." Another chimes in with "I'm a professor at an illustrious college, who helps form the minds of the greatest thinkers of the next generations." Yet another adds "I'm an Oscar winning Actor, renowned for my ability to convey great emotional portent through my talent." "I'm a professional Athlete who won awards during my collegiate years." "I'm a professional Athlete who was the MVP of the most prestigious game in my sport!" The competition gets into full swing. "I am a Senator from the Great State of YaddaBlahBlah." "I am a Nobel Laureate!" "I have been President of these United States of America!" And finally, from the back comes a masculine voice with an American accent. "I have walked on the Moon."

Fewer people have walked on the moon than have been president of the USA. Twelve people, in the entire history of the human race, have ever left this planet and walked on the surface of another world. 12. Currently there are over 6,000,000,012 on the planet.

Only three countries- China, Russia, and the US- have ever put people in "space". Many other countries have had people on missions those three have conducted; but the fact remains: 3 countries of well over 100, and 12 people in more than 7 billion (this is counting everyone who has ever lived, and those alive today).

The SPACE AGE! ended when we stopped putting people on the Moon. Today, and ever since then, we've been puttering around inside our own atmosphere. We barely put anything into space itself. Sure, there are probes and satellites, observatories, telescopes, and (very few) other things; but there hasn't been people out there in a long long time.

Does that mean we need to spend the money and go to Mars, to Europa, Ganymede, Titan, Enceladus, or somewhere else? No, but I'd be beside myself if we did. I'd be happy to go back to the Moon. I'd be ecstatic if we would simply do what we last showed we were capable of in 1972! I would like to actually live in THE SPACE AGE! instead of these inter-atmospheric doldrums we've been in ever since.