Way to the stars

The way to the stars

The future of space travel can be seen as a progression of technology of increasingly difficulty, initially, but, eventually, decreasing marginal cost. The eventual aim, as with all other forms of transport is cheapness, safety and reliability.

Sounding rockets (for atmospheric and astronomical research)
Re-usable sounding rockets (none in use, so far, though Starchaser is working on one)
Orbital launchers (e.g. ESA's Ariane, Russian Proton, etc.)
Re-usable orbital launchers (non in use, so far, though the Space-X Falcon is jut coming into use)
Human-carrying sub-orbital rockets, e.g. NASA's Mercury-Redstone in the 1960s
Re-usable human-carrying sub-orbital rockets (none yet, but Starchaser's planned reusable Thunderbird is coming)
Re-usable human-carrying sub-orbital space-planes (none yet - Spacefleet's planned SF-01 is one of these and there are others)
Re-usable human-carrying orbital launchers, rockets and space-planes (none yet)
Permanent space station (There is a small one of those, but the ISS does not provide gravity)
Permanent space station, with artificial gravity (not for a good while yet)
Lunar shuttle, earth-orbit to the moon (various plans)
Lunar base (tentative plans)
Martian orbiting observation satellites, trio in geo-stationary orbit for communications
Martian (robotic) explorers (only temporary ones so far)
Fast Mars shuttle with ion thrusters and artificial gravity
Martian space station, with artificial gravity (useful if interplanetary craft can't land)
Martian bases (which is what the Mars Society is studying)
Human exploration of the larger asteroids, e.g. Ceres, Juno, Vesta, etc.
Human exploration of Jupiter's moons
Human exploration of Saturn's moons
Human exploration of Uranus's moons
Human exploration of Neptune's moons
Human exploration of Pluto, Charon and the Kuyper Belt
Voyages to the stars

The whole Solar System is worth exploring, because astronomical observations have already shown that each planet, moon and asteroid has something unique about it and worth investigating and understanding. While this progression of exploration is taking place, better telescopes than we have now will have found terrestrial planets orbiting other stars, and it will probably be possible to find those that have atmospheres containing oxygen, the sign of life. When that happens, and it is only a matter of time, suddenly there will be a reason for travelling to the stars, and that too will be possible.