Let's hope so but like some of the others stated, sometimes I also feel like we are going backwards. Big Governments need the big space money for their own interest and other advancements are laid to rest these days. Mabey when all these darn wars are over with , we can get back into space with something besides a robot. Ha.
I hope it too.. and what a robot! These days I watched the live broadcast of the curiosity mars mission landing and saw something that make my jaw drop. They tested a method of using the disc shaped capsule with its ablative disk as a hypersonic glider, controled by payload CG shifting and also reaction rockets. This allows pinpoint landing accuracy in planetary missions without carrying any fuel at all.. (not to mention the sky crane landing method that looked wild but worked perfectly).
This method turns more feasible a human mission to mars, making possible to send before the explorers arrive living headquarters, water, food.. etc.. and then right at the side of all this the ships with the first people in mars.
I think like one guy said in a newspaper that human progress is not like a ratchet, as we can easily loose things we already achieved.. however I believe that mankind has a natural tendency to keep the ratchet turning and turning.