What do you think are the next major milestones for human space exploration?

[killamch89]

With Artemis missions aiming to return humans to the lunar surface and private companies racing to Mars logistics, what do you see as the next big leap in space exploration? A permanent lunar base? Crewed missions to Phobos and Deimos? A Titan probe with human operators in orbit? Or breakthroughs in propulsion like nuclear thermal rockets?

[The Blackangel]

A lunar outpost with people stationed there is most likely. Probes are being sent moons around other planets such as Jupiter and Saturn. There are several astronomers who are teaming up with geologists, scientists, and meteorologists to try to design a probe that could survive a landing on Venus. Russia landed a probe on Venus in 1970. It managed to take several pictures before the atmosphere obliterated it. We’ve put a hell of a lot of study into Mars because it's the most likely planet in our solar system that could support life. Aside from Earth. There are other teams who are trying to figure out how to drop probes to the interior of the gas and ice giants. But the pressure is so intense that we can’t yet come up with something that wouldn’t be crushed down to a grain of sand while still in the outer atmosphere.

So we’re trying. It’s coming slowly, but it is coming. Maybe not in our lifetimes, but at some point.

[killamch89]

Beyond the obvious Mars landing milestone, I believe establishing permanent cislunar infrastructure will prove more historically significant. A sustainable lunar presence with in-situ resource utilization capabilities would fundamentally transform our relationship with space from exploratory visits to genuine economic and scientific extension of human civilization.