Five reasons to abort space tourism

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before!“

Those of you born in the 60s and 70s will remember this famous introduction to the well-loved television series Star Trek. I loved the program. Growing up, I looked forward to each episode every weekend on TV. The idea of exploring space sounded so exciting, although, even at that age, I did wonder how the crew of Enterprise could travel forever without seeing their family!

The idea of going into space has of course become reality. Various missions by America, Russia, China and India have demonstrated this. Magnificent strides have been made. And it is no longer nations sending out missions. Billionaire entrepreneurs are jumping on that space-wagon as well. Recently Richard Branson posted a video of a flight by his project, Virgin Galactic. But we are at a point where we need to question is going into space really what we should we doing? There is fierce debate on this topic. Here are 5 reasons why I think we should abort space tourism.

1.    Focus on planet Earth

This is an image of planet Earth taken from space. No one can deny how beautiful Earth is. How Earth came about, the dinosaurs, evolution, all the mysterious life forms, etc are questions that Science is still in the process of answering. Did it all start with the Big Bang? Or is it all preceded by God? Whatever the answer, we have a beautiful planet.

Or do we?

Double click on the beautiful picture of Earth and other images emerge. And all that destruction and annihilation is caused by us, humans. Why would we do this? Greed? Religion? Power? A thirst to prove our invincibility?

Should we really impose this on another planet, because we know without a doubt, it will happen. Humankind will find a reason to dispute, even in outer space.

We always start with the right intention. But somewhere along the way, priorities get corrupted.

So let’s not go and destroy another planet. Let’s try and fix what we have.

2.    Better use of money

It is difficult to estimate how much has been spent on space exploration in total. The chart below shows what the National Aeronautical Space Agency (NASA) has spent from the time it was established to 2018. The amounts spent have been translated to current value.  Whichever way we look at the data, the amount is significant.

Additionally, based on what I have been able to ascertain, Richard Branson has spent over $1 billion to bring space tourism to reality. You may have seen recently that Branson posted videos of Virgin Galactic making a maiden flight. From what I understand, the Galactic can accommodate 6 passengers. Elon Musk claims that it will cost about $5 billion for his version of a space ship (Space X) to be ready for launch. Jeff Bezos is also keen to explore space. Bezos is spending more than $1 billion on Blue Origin. All three billionaires expect to recover their cost. The price per ride is expected to be over $200,000 per passenger.

Big numbers indeed. But consider the three numbers in the chart below.

700 million is the estimate of the number of people globally who live in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank. That translates to 1 in 9 people, who go to bed hungry each night.

19 million is the number of people who are expected to be diagnosed with cancer each year. Of this, about 50% will die from it.

Finally, 3.5 million is the number of our fellow human beings who have died because of Covid-19 at the time of writing.

Can the monies that are being spent on space tourism be used instead to fund research to help eliminate illnesses, ensure a clean supply of water to all areas of the world, eradicate poverty, ensure that children are not dying from malnutrition, just simply make the world a gentler place?

It is reassuring to know that Bill Gates is not a “Mars person” and is not funding trips to space but has dedicated the funds of the foundation set up by him and Melinda to finding cures for illnesses.

3.    Space and then what?

Why does NASA want to explore landing in Mars? What do we get from going into space? Since records were maintained, over half a billion lives have been lost to anthropogenic disasters. The history or humanity is a history of wars. I can’t imagine it any different in space. Whose right is it to occupy another planet? Will different factions, different nations once again fight to claim territory? To live in peace for a good length of time doesn’t seem to be in the nature of humankind. Quibbles, quarrels, disputes, war. That appears to be the trend. And it is often in the interest of a few and their agendas that millions of lives are lost.

4.    The pollution cost

At a time when so much is being spoken about clean energy and global warming, is it not ironic that high profile individuals are investing in technology that actually harms our environment. Here are some interesting data I discovered in researching this topic:

• The energy released by the three Space Shuttle Main Engines at their full power—calculated in watts—is equivalent to the same amount of energy created by 13 Hoover Dams (Source: www.nasa.gov);
•   At liftoff, the two Solid Rocket Boosters consume 11,000 pounds of fuel per second. That’s two million times the rate at which fuel is burned by the average family car (Source: www.nasa.gov);
• Space launches can have a hefty carbon footprint due to the burning of solid rocket fuels. Many rockets are, however, propelled by liquid hydrogen fuel, which produces ‘clean’ water vapour exhaust, although the production of hydrogen itself can cause significant carbon emissions. Rocket engines release trace gases into the upper atmosphere that contribute to ozone depletion, as well as particles of soot (Source: Are space launches bad for the environment? Science Focus).

Whilst space rocket launches are infrequent, imagine if the number of trips to space increases over time. Can our environment and ozone layer bear this cost?

5.    What law governs the universe?

I remember when the internet was first launched. No one had a clue about which law had oversight over the internet. What is allowed and not allowed? Over time, various Governments have developed their own law to control social media and what is legal. Imagine if space travel becomes the norm. What is the law that is followed? I agree this is a small point and not likely to be an issue for a while. But imagine the complexity of figuring this out.

Well perhaps we can get guidance from the movie, Star Wars. As in the movie, we may just have to construct our own version of the Jedi Order. For those unfamiliar with Star Wars, the Jedi Order was a noble order of protectors. They were the guardians of peace and justice in the Galactic republic. Unfortunately, the age of the Jedi ended due to a nefarious plot by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious.

I am not against space exploration where there is a purpose. Good scientific reasons. But we should proceed with care and really examine the cost v benefits for non scientific reasons for space travel.

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