12 | Endeavour Magazine Endeavour Magazine | 13
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.