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What I find interesting is the divergence between science and science fiction. Look how many stories are about exploration of space. Build ship and go find out what's out there.
Today, we have the capability to find out (but it would cost billions and billions of dollars) just what is out there. With adaptive optics and computer technology, the former didn't even exist in 1980 (see Jim Baen's Destinies Vol 3 No 2 article Looking About in Space. We could (with enough money) build a 10 Kilometer adaptive telescope and/or an even bigger distributied telescope, that would let us spot Earth size planets all the way to the core (dust willing) and see a disk out to 14 light years. And do it right here on earth, with people knocking off at quitting time and going home to the family...
We aren't going to have much exploration stories in reality, we'll have done it by remote control....
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