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SPACE TRAVEL WILL CHANGE THE WORLD AND NOT HOW WE EXPECT IT TO

WRITTEN BY DAEMON SANDS

I firmly advocate space tourism. I believe that getting people into space could be the most important thing that humanity could possibly do. If it seems that the cost is too high, siphon money from every military budget, drag it out of the monthly wages of politician, claw it from the talons of government funded projects that are redundant and serve no purpose.

There is a definite

argument for the

importance of humanity

pressing the boundaries placed

on us by nature. The patents,

the discoveries, the research

and the accomplishments of The

International Space Programme

have resulted in a long list of

resources that we take for

granted. The challenges that

putting a man in space and return

him safely are so varied and

daunting that there is a natural

overflow of ingenious ideas and

solutions that make their way into

our daily lives. The importance

of these was so notable that

the moment the government

cut NASA’s funding, Redbull,

a corporate entity, stepped in

and took the bill. Yes it was the

highest skydive in the world but

this was not just a publicity stunt,

the money required to do these

things makes mere advertising

redundant.

However, this is not even the

reason why I think space travel

is the most important thing we

could do as a species.

Quite simply, it would be a

perspective changer.

When it comes to space

travel all we have is secondary

information. Pictures, videos and

statements, nothing more and

in the same way that if you’ve

never had the chance to see the

Grand Canyon, Victoria Falls or

walked across the sand dunes of

Namibia you cannot appreciate

the scope of what it means to do

so. There is no alternative to the

powerful educator and influence

of experience. There is that.

Also, we live in secular

bubbles where the small,

purile and silly problems of our

everyday lives tend to take up

“Quite simply, it would be a perspective changer.”

precedence over everything.

Take someone out of their

stressful job in the city and put

them in the middle of a warzone

or a famine and see how their

perspective changes. See what a

sublime shift in character would

occur. Like the Dalai Lama says,

“Experience is death and rebirth

of the human soul.”

The noise and chaos of the

world has reached the point

where we are in a storm of

activity. Politics, religion, social

ideas and the moans and groans

of everybody online are so quickly

and inescapably communicated

that taking a simple step

backwards is no longer enough

to change opinions.

Put a politician into space,

let them see the curvature of

the Earth, let them experience

the tiny pinprick of the world in

comparison to the endlessness

Even as expensive as it

may seem now, as long as we

don’t give up on it, commercial

space travel will eventually

become more affordable until

eventually everyone will have the

opportunity to get into space.

And if Redbull wants to take

the bill and label everything with

stickers, so be it. At any and all

costs we need to put people into

space because a perspective

changer is what is needed, a shift

in our thinking is needed and we

are not getting it down on Earth.

of the Universe, let them see the solar system without the gazebo

of pollution, let them see the storm of colours and lights that is the

universe. Let them see all of this, let them dangle above their home

and realize how tiny and insignificant it all is and they will return to

earth as a changed person.

How could they not?

Donnie Rust calls this the Superman World View and as much as it

pains me to admit it, this is a brilliant analogy.

Although Superman testifies to believing in the American way

which is Truth, Justice and Freedom, it is actually a world view not

caged in by the borderlines of the States. He floats in space, looking

down at the world and he does not see countries or states separated

by imaginary lines of ownership, kingdoms nor nations, races,

genders, orientations, cultures nor religions, he looks and sees the

world as a whole that needs to be protected, guided. He sees himself

as responsible for the planet. From his point of view, so many miles

above the Earth in the silence of space everyone looks the same. And

everything that the world is, is there and not endless but rather fragile.

Imagine how petty religious arguments must seem, how

unnecessarily and complicated politics must appear and how foolish

the actions of evil people must be.

Nor is this hyperbole, astronauts have often described themselves

as fundamentally changed after seeing their planet from the outside.

Irrevocably altered on a deep psychological level after turning away

from the world and seeing the rest of everything staring back at them.