For centuries, people have dreamed about space travel. Now, scientists are building an inflatable space station for a mission to Mars. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, new frontiers in space, and how science fiction shaped NASA. Also, a childhood spent watching the rockets near Cape Kennedy.

NASA's Horacio de la Fuente tells Jim Fleming about the TransHab: an inflatable space vehicle that will provide crew accommodations for a propsed Mars mission. And, Howard McCurdy is the author of "Space and the American Imagination. He tells Steve Paulson that the American space program has always been influenced by science fiction and recreates the American myths of the Frontier.

Dennis Hope is the owner of Lunar Embassy, which he claims is the only entity with the right to sell real estate on the moon. He tells Jim Fleming on what basis he claims ownership of celestial boodies and says he has thousands of customers, including many celebrities. And this is all legal!

Writer Jesse Lee Kercheval is the author of "Space: A Memoir" in which she recalls her girlhood across the causeway from Cape Kennedy. She tells Judith Strasser that launches were commonplace, that everything in the town was related to the space industry and that the locals feared the region would collapse at the end of the Apollo project.

Distribution dates:

• week of 02/22/98 - hour 2