“Never” is a long time. Look at the technology we have today and compare it to even 50 years ago. Travel back 500 years ago and it all looks like sorcery. Talking to people in other parts of the world instantly. Images moving on screens. Flying to any point in the globe in less than 1 day. Artificial hearing. Artificial bones. Artificial limbs. Access to the world’s store of information on a device you can store in your back pocket. Ships of steel weighing thousands of tons powered by the same forces as the Sun. Tunneling machines that can burrow thru solid rock.
If you have such little imagination and hope for the future, I then wish you well in your retirement.
It has nothing to do with lack of imagination.
It is a recognition of the explosion in oversight that smothers potential.
No longer is the question “what’s possible?”, rather, “who get’s blamed if this doesn’t work?”
Too many layers and departments dedicated to protecting the boss.
Too many contractors reporting to NASA know nothings, motivated by continued and increasing funding.
This isn’t about propulsion technology, this is about the hundreds of layers of technology needed to get a man rated system there and back.
"Those who say a thing is impossible should not interrupt those who are doing it..."