Last night I came across a contest to promote a Rising Star
winner to fly to suborbital space on an XCOR Lynx and introduce to “influential”
celebrities. (You still have time to enter – deadline is July 3!) I’m very unlikely
to win because I was bluntly honest in my answers to their application essay
questions, I’m completely unimpressed by celebrity, and I’m probably more
experienced than what they’re looking for, but I decided that it didn’t hurt to
try.
Two of their application questions really got to me: how
having a spaceflight experience would change me and how I would use the
experience to inspire others. I know the answers that they were looking for: inspiring
children to choose STEM educations, the astronaut overview effect,
environmentalism, global unity, encouraging public and political support, etc.
For me, those answers are cliché and insincere.
I think about air travel today. I’ve been flying on planes
for my entire life. Air travel has changed my life by making it more convenient
for me to travel distances. Do those experiences change me as a person, make me
more of an environmentalist, inspire me to inspire children, etc.? No, of
course not. And I would imagine that only individuals raised in societies where
modern technology is rare would be inspired by another’s airflight experience.
I think about air travel 100 years ago when the first
commercial passengers experienced flight. I’ve never read anything about early
commercial air passengers developing a greater sense of purpose. Did the experience
of those passengers inspire others? I very much hope that all of them inspired
at least someone to buy a ticket. Early adapters of technology promote the
acceptance of that technology. The growth of paying passengers created the
industry that has allowed air travel to become as common as it is today.
I think about something I’ve done that’s uncommon: fly in a
parabolic “zero G” aircraft. Reduced gravity flights have existed since the
1950s. I’ve had the privilege of flying twice so far. Did my experience change
me? No. It was awesome and I highly recommend it, but it did not change who I
am, what I believe in, or what I’m inspired to do. Did my experience inspire
others? Not to my knowledge. Anyone who thought, “Wow, that’s cool, I wish I
could do that!” could buy a ticket. Not everyone can afford a ZeroG ticket
immediate, but the vast majority of us could save up for it if we chose to. The
experience is open to almost all.
If we continue in the mindset of “right stuff” astronauts, incomprehensibly rich space tourists, and the occasional lucky contest winner,
the commercial human spaceflight industry will never grow. Do we want to equate
space travel with adventure tourism such as climbing Mount Everest, deep ocean
submarine exploration, or Arctic expeditions? Do we want space travel to be seen as only
a luxury that few can afford, only the lucky can experience, and the rest can
only dream about and be inspired by? I don’t want that. Joy rides and once-in-a-lifetime
experiences are not what I’m working in the space industry to develop and
promote. My company’s motto is, “Space for all,” and I believe in that.
Married to a PhD economist, I’m no stranger to skepticism
about the commercial space industry. The satellite market is profitable and
sustainable because it has a wide market purpose. What is the wider purpose of
human space travel for the general public that will make it profitable?
Transportation is an obvious application, global transportation followed by
transport to space outposts or planetary bodies as the infrastructure develops.
If many years down the road we discover that planetary body mining or other
planetary surface operations are profitable, and if there’s a benefit to having
humans in the loop, there’s a potential application. Many, many, many years
down the road, when we can extend human civilization into space beyond
low-Earth orbit, there are more opportunities.
I’m a passionate space geek, but most of the population isn’t.
Do our current astronauts inspire others? Yes, they inspire a tiny percentage
of the population who are already inclined to think that space exploration is worthwhile.
How many people in the general public know the name of a single current
astronaut? How many of us in the industry can name a single current astronaut?
Astronauts inspire me in the sense that I want to fly in
space as well, without being “right stuff” perfect. Space inspires many of us
because we can imagine ourselves in their place, not as flawless humans or even
in the top 10%. The involvement of the average person means
progress.
When I fly in space, I want the experience to further
normalize space travel. The last thing I want to do is to emphasize the
specialness of it, to promote how elite the small group of astronauts is, or to
put the experience up on a pedestal so high that the general public can’t touch
it except in their dreams. The private space industry is doomed to failure if
we take this route.
My goal is to take our industry out of the realm of the
elite and make it more open, more inclusive, and more able to change the world
that we live in by making it available and even commonplace for the average
citizen. I don’t want my future children to dream of floating in space, I want
them to experience it first-hand. I want to tell my grandchildren stories about
how space travel used to belong only to the elite as we fly on a suborbital
vehicle to take a family vacation across the world. I want to inspire others to buy a
ticket for themselves.
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