The New York Times has a fascinating spread on The Space Age, covering Sputnik’s Legacy, the resulting pop culture lift-off, future travel to the Moon and Mars and much more. So what’s in store as we look back to move ahead?

Experts in government, industry and science agree, however, that these three broad trends will shape the coming decades in space:

NASA has embarked on a program to return to the Moon by 2020, not just for what some critics call “flags and footprints,” but also for a lasting presence with scientific research and preparation for expeditions to asteroids and, eventually, Mars. The space shuttle program is being wound down by 2010 to create the next generation of vehicles.

Other nations, notably Russia and China, have ambitious plans and could spur a space race like the one that sent Americans to the Moon. “It took Sputnik for us to recognize what the Soviet Union was up to,” said Harrison H. Schmitt, who flew the last mission to the Moon, in 1972. “I don’t know what it will take this time.”

Private enterprise is moving ahead, beginning with space tourism and, later, transport services for NASA and other governments to outposts like the International Space Station. Beyond that, ventures could include mining on asteroids and manufacturing drugs in space.

The Y’s Mysteries of Science and On the Brink series set their coordinates for two related talks, Jim Bell: Postcards from Mars on November 15 and Should We Go Back to the Moon? in spring 2008.