I'm waiting for some garage genius to invent an anti-grav machine and beat the rocket guys into space by converting his VW bug into a space going vehicle.
I hope I live long enough (am 35) to see the first nuclear powered spacecraft reach half the speed of light and reach Alpha Centurai. The journey is 4 light years meaning 8 years to reach it... Too bad the anti-aging stuff is taking so long to perfect I would love to live to see us colonize the stars...
> I fail to see the over riding advantages of a powered landing, vs one with parachutes.
Operations. Apowered lander can, in principle, simply gas up and go again. It can land on the launch pad. It can have *nearly* the operability od a helicopter. It has fewer systems than one that uses a parachute.
However, parachutes provide a safety margin in that they are pretty reliable, and a winged vehicle can land on a runway.
I expect that someday there'll be some sort of general commonality for such suborbital vehicles, just as most airplanes look *generally* alike in planform. But all the methods will have to be tried before then.