The Lego company just released a 16+ advanced kit of the Space Shuttle... and they can't keep them in stores.  And that's not just at our local Glendale store near JPL, it is the same story down at the Downtown Disney Lego store where most traffic is from vacationers who have to really like something to cough up the hundred retail PLUS take away a bigger-than-carry-on sized box.

Mary Roach of Bonk and Stiff fame has released her Packing for Mars book and its first week out has it at #5 of the NY Times Bestseller List.  Pretty neat, and even moreso in that when I was flying out to Hawaii last week it was just being unpacked at the Hudson Books shop and one the way back it was marked as their #1 seller (I asked the cashier if that was just at the SeaTac location due to the Boeing travellers and he said "no, it's number one across all of the Hudson stores.")

Normal people appear to WANT space in their lives.

Normal people.  Not just us fringey scifi nerds and geeks.

The question is... if this is the sign of a potential "tipping point" WHO is poised or working on taking advantage of it.  WHO is able to grab it and run with it before Boeing/Lockheed do their perfected spin and re-convince the normal folks that normal folks are not worthy of getting space into their lives? 

Is there this time any group or figurehead face who can stand up at this moment in front of Real People and get the geeks and nerds to, this time, not step on their own toes about the big picture of space?  Admit it, fellow geeks, we fight over minutia that bores the masses into being perfectly ready for Boeing/Lockheed's taking back the status quo.

Let's check the usual suspects.  Zubrin?  He is a great speaker - fantastic even - and I totally believe MarsDirect has the goods but as I see it the point in time went by and now his ranks are mostly in a comfortable club, plus he is so focused and niched that he upsets more folks away than he gets making Space nearer for regular people.  Tumlinson?  Great guy... but there is a Los Angeles glad-hand to him and after testing his waters at the SFF NewSpace conference I personally think that it's MirCorp laurels and 1980's style mission statements with no substance at this point.  Bill Nye, now head of the Planetary Society? That's a JPL brain trust... great for elite robot makers with lotsa doctorates but not for real people who want to see real people get high.

Chris Carberry's ExploreMars.org?  Well... from my limited experience with Mr. Carberry I have to say maybe & perhaps.  Maybe.  Perhaps.  I like the man and I always got the feeling that he is true to his word, but we'll have to see what all his new group comes up with and how they get it out to real people and keep it in the faces of those real people till Space is personal for everyone.

Is this a moment in time that will see a change to normal, actual people Getting *into* Space?  Or will it just be another blip, quickly forgotten?