post-apocalyptic vs pioneering scientce and discovery

[Anna]

As I look at my bookshelf, I realize that our times create our topics. In the 1960's and 1970's, sci-fi horror was new, there were so many avenues to explore; old curses, new places. The past 2 decades have been devoted to, in my opinion, new uses for old monsters and post-apocalyptic worlds. Heinlein, Asimov, LeGuin and Bradbury were in the stars. There don't seem to be many star-gazers around now, or is that just my imagination?

[[deleted user]]

Well, I kinda look at it like heavy metal - it's always there, whether it gets the mainstream push or not. But I guess that kind of SF needs another great leap forward - the space shuttle is nothing new, there's a space station orbiting the planet at all times (but how often do you actually hear anything about it?), and it kinda seems like once we went to the moon it was like, "Ok, that's it folks." I think it would take something like colonizing the moon or getting to Mars to perk up major star-gazing interest again.