Unfortunately, I do not see a 1,500-ton, nuclear-powered spacecraft with spin gravity and a laser cannon as the "near future" of space exploration. Maybe someday. But not the near future.
On the bright side, I do see a lot of interesting things coming in the near future.
First, we are going to be getting some very heavy lift capabilities in the near term. The Falcon Heavy is designed to be able to put more payload into orbit than any other rocket currently flying, and if reusability actually works out, it should be much cheaper than anything else we've ever seen. That opens up a lot of options in terms of what you can afford to put into space. They say the Falcon Heavy will fly within six months, which we've heard before. We shall see. Also, SpaceX just recently shipped one of its new Raptor engines to Texas for testing. The Raptor has three times the thrust of the Merlin, so maybe we'll see the next generation of super big rockets from SpaceX in a couple of years.
The other heavy lift rocket in the works is the SLS. I recently read that an apples-to-apples comparison indicates that the later variants (Block III or Block IV?) will be able to boost more payload into orbit than the mighty Saturn V. Earlier comparisons were between payload for the SLS versus "injected mass" for the Saturn V, so they were not good comparisons. Anyway, if SLS works out, we will have a heavy lift booster in the same class as Saturn.
Any serious space exploration begins with being able to get mass into orbit, so it's great to see progress on that!
I'm also really looking forward to seeing the crewed Dragon fly, and also the Red Dragon fly to Mars for a landing attempt (uncrewed). I'm excited about the crewed capsule being developed by Boeing. And I'm looking forward to seeing more progress on Orion. It will be great to have more options for getting people into space and back again.
NASA just recently picked six companies to develop concepts for deep-space habitats --- the kinds of modules that would be needed for a space station near the moon, or a trip to an asteroid or Mars, or a space station around Mars. The ISS has been good for learning how to live and work in Earth orbit, but the deep space environment has other challenges, including a much harsher radiation environment, so it will be interesting to see what they come up with.
Those pieces --- heavy lift booster, capsule, and deep-space habitat --- are all in the pipeline. And you could do a lot of interesting missions with those elements.
There are a few other pieces that I think are required for a robust space exploration program. One is a powerful, reusable, and refuelable propulsion module that can be used for deep-space missions to places like asteroids and Mars. I am not aware of anything like that being under active development. And another is a lander for getting to the surface of the moon, and a different type of lander and ascent vehicle for Mars.
If we can get these main elements developed, then I think we've got a real space exploration program.