Civilian Space Travel

With the announcement this week that three companies including Space X have won money from NASA I decided to discuss the subject of civilian travel itself. While the technology and science behind space travel has been around a long time, it's not until the last five years that civilian space travel has become a reality. I can remember sitting at home and watching the take off of discover and Columbia and the launching of the international space station. I remember the joy and amazement I felt seeing a live image of the Earth in real time for the first time in my life. It was different from seeing it in videos and photos growing up because it felt like for me that I was actually there experiencing it with the astronauts themselves. I had wanted to be a marine biologist growing up, but because math was never my strong suit I learned very quickly entering college that it wasn't something I could do. Still you don't need a degree or even to be good at math to appreciate the wonder of the world and I think each time we all see a new piece of technology or science makes a new discovery that we all go back to being like kids again, staring in wonder at the world around us. That's never a bad thing of course, because its what makes the new things we learn exciting.

You can image the reaction I had when the space program was grounded. Neil Degrasse Tyson put it best in his plea to congress that the moment we stop wanting to discover, the moment we stop holding the Earth with such wonder is the moment we lose it's importance to us and our future. When you look up at the stars in the sky in wonder you can almost feel what other cultures felt many years ago as they stood in wonder at the beauty of the universe that was created in front of them. Space travel isn't just a way of discovering the universe, but its also a way of discovering just how important and unique the planet we live on is. I know people won't completely agree with how I feel on the subject, but that's fine with me. I think that when civilian space travel is possible for not just a few people to experience, but the world that we will all be able to hold a new found appreciation, not just of science and technology, but the beautiful world that we live in. We'll know for the very first time what it was like looking down on the Earth from so far and seeing it and then realizing that we need to better protect it, not just for ourselves, but for those who come after us. There are risk and I understand that, but it's just like any job any firemen takes or police officer takes, the list goes on. They do it because they love their job and they understand the risk. Civilian space travel is a way in which for the very first time a larger amount of our generation can experience it up close and in a sense it may be a way for people to find a new found appreciation for it, rather then take for granted what we have. I'm not saying people don't appreciate it now, I just want every generation that comes after me to get the chance to hold the world in as much wonder as I have.

So, tell me if civilian space travel becomes affordable would you go into space and if so what would you do?