Ever since the man first landed on the moon, and the genre of science fiction gained prominence, humanity has pondered what it would be like to traverse space. So far only a small community of astronauts exist that have seen the wonders that our universe has to offer. With the rise of billionaire space explores, such as Elon Musk and Jeff Besos the concept of space travel is not far off once the technology develops. But even though I am excited about the idea of one day visiting space, looking at the state of tourism on earth I am pessimistic of how commercial space travel will be conducted.
Travel is one of the most exciting and unique adventures people can embark on. I feel as humans we are wired with an innate sense of curiosity about our world. Travelling to unknown countries, immersing oneself in different cultures helps us expand our minds and helps us be more curious and well rounded human beings.
But space travel, even when it reaches a commercial stage, would be extremely expensive reserved only for the upper echelon of society while simultaneously posing as an immense burden on our planet. Travelling to space takes resources, resources that we do not have and cannot afford to burn due to the current climate crisis. Present day air travel itself imposes a huge burden on our planet, and space travel would only increase that. Our priorities as a society should be to conserve the beauty of our planet. The planet we know for sure can sustain life.
The current tourism industry here on earth also does not have a great track record on conserving and honouring some of the most critically important parts of our world From cruise ships polluting pristine waters, ginormous mountains essentially becoming glorified cemeteries and exoticisation of various indigenous cultures for market. I believe space travel will lead to a similar destructions of environments we may potentially traverse, such as Mars or the Moon, if commercial space travel is meant to be a solely profit-minded venture.
Space Travel has the potential to open up an entirely new avenue to how we understand ourselves as human beings, may even be inspired to identify ourselves as earthlings! But judging by the way we treat the wonders our home planet, I feel the potential of space travel should first inspire us to show compassion and care towards our own planet before we begin to explore those that we see between the stars.
We have a long way to go before Space travel is accessible in a commercial capacity and we should take the time to evolve and grow as a society fit to travel the stars.