If you stop and think about it, the form of propulsion used today hasn't changed in over a thousand years... since the invention of fireworks by the Chinese.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
We do need different types of propulsion to get to Mars. I wrote one of the first Ph.D. theses on that in the 1960s.
Fire is our first form of technology.
There is a reason it is called fossil fuel-it is an outdated method of getting power.
Technology is similarly just a catalyst at times for fundamental forces already present.
There has been a huge advance in technology, which has improved the safety of the cars incredibly, but there are still some heavy crash impacts and in certain circumstances there is still the chance of fire today.
Electromagnetic theory and experiment gave us the telephone, radio, TV, computers, and made the internal combustion engine practical - thus, the car and airplane, leading inevitably to the rocket and outer-space exploration.
People say they are inventing electric cars. Well, where is the electricity coming from? Flowers? Maybe someday. But what is available now is oil and gas.
IT is now reaching out to fuels and chemicals, energy and clean tech, rockets, all kinds of bizarre industries that formerly didn't face much competition.
Everybody recognizes that if you can make very efficient electric motors, you can make a quantum leap forward.
The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.