Humans in Space

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges for a space enthusiast or a person new to the space literature in comparison with someone who is trained or working in some aspects of space is to distinguish between what we “know” about space from all the movies and TV shows we have seen, games we have played, music we have heard, and (for people of a certain age) books and stories they have read, from what the reality of space exploration actually is. Some of us are so immersed in space as popular culture has constructed it that we greatly exaggerate or overestimate what has already been accomplished by members of the space community versus what has actually been done (much less what is actually underway or seriously planned). When such people discover the truth, they are often shocked, disappointed, and perhaps disillusioned. Space fiction and popular expectations generated by the extraordinary and rapid developments between the late 1950s and the early 1970s are so very far ahead of subsequent space achievements, at least in human spaceflight, that many people have lost all faith in space activities.