where has no one gone before?

Space has long been called, the final frontier. In the last 50 years, Men have gone to the moon and back, then stagnated. Today, as a race, our journey to space is barely three (US shuttle) flights per year into orbit in 2006.

Entrepreneurs who have begun an era of privately funded human space flight like Burt Rutan and Sir Richard Branson (via Virgin Galactic) are opening up space exploration like never before.

Branson and Rutan are not the only ones.

Maverick adventurers like Bill Stone would like to challenge the status quo. From lessons learned in exploring the deepest secrets of our planet, he dreams of sending a team to the moon in seven years in order to build an orbiting fuel station, which he believes is part of the key to open up space for further exploration. They are also using techniques learned in mapping out the deepest part of the Earth to send an autonomous smart tools to the moon Europa and search for life there.

Bill Stone's TEDTalk:

downloadable zipped video (mp4): here.

It would be nice to be part of that mission.

Can anyone say, "where no one has gone before"?