Space Religion and the Infidels

I love my job. As a publisher of space exploration books, I get to rub shoulders with some of my childhood heroes, why just last week I spent three days with Buzz Aldrin in Washington DC; the man is still brilliant and passionate about space exploration. Through my connections at various space advocacy groups I also get involved in all sorts of incredible projects, discussions, lobbying efforts, private space companies and many other spacey things.

Space advocacy is like a religion in that you have to have faith, either in the overarching goal of settling the solar system and maybe one day the stars, or in how that next Reaction Control System will have an ignition system that doesn't use a single point criticality method for lighting the fuel and oxidizer. Everything is discussed with passion and conviction. It's no wonder that the general public has no idea what space exploration is really about, how could they? Do they have the requisite intelligence or more precisely, faith in any one of the many different space ivory tower "religions"?

It reminds me of the part in Monty Python's Life of Brian where, in a matter of moments, the new messiah's church is split into either following the shoe or the gourd in order to be a true believer. Killing the heretics seems to be the instant order of the day. The National Space Society (NSS) has seen much of this kind of fractious splitting of faiths in its multi-decade lifespan. You only have to look around at the space advocacy groups dotted around the Cyber-landscape to see many that split off from NSS as heretic splinter groups no longer content to bow to the "space papacy." (Try saying that 10 times quickly)

Some advocate commercialization of the high frontier, perhaps the only true way to achieve sustainability, others say "science only" and keep your mucky commercial hands off our pristine solar system. (Who decided it was theirs in the first place is a mystery.) I really wouldn't like to see casinos on the moon but let's face it, it's commerce that pays for science in the long run. So we have a face off between different believers and infidels. Perhaps Carbon versus Silicon on the final frontier.

The latest cul-de-sac space argument I've been listening to is that Space Tourists don't like being called ... tourists. They see themselves as much more than paying photo takers in Hawaiian shirts, which is the usual image of the T word. Quite rightly so, the private citizens who have visited the Space Station, some of whom I've met, are extraordinary human beings. They have excelled in their chosen fields and have put their money where their mouths are and have visited somewhere the rest of us can only dream of. They are involved in trying to open space for all of us, so maybe the word tourist is not right for them. Maybe they should be citizen explorers, or space flyers, can't they just be astronauts? It depends on your space religion which of these fits your beliefs.

But hold on a minute! One thing almost all of us in the space community agree on is that space is the future of the human species. It's important that we the converted and faithful, the "chosen people" spread our gospel to the unbelievers and the space infidels who comprise most of humanity. In order to do this we have to speak to them not from up on high from the temple walls in languages they do not comprehend, but in phrases and terms that they do understand. The infidels understand the word Tourist. It means somebody who is a traveler visiting new places on their own dime and hopefully having fun doing it. They get that. They know it costs a lot, but they get it. Trying to once again obfuscate the lexicon because we find the term "tourist" demeaning is counter productive to our cause. In private space churches if you want to call them Citizen-Space-Flyer-Explorernauts then do so, but don't try to tell Joe & Jane Public that, because they'll switch channels on you as fast as you can say "new reality show."

Dennis, Mark, Greg, Anousheh and all those who follow, please forgive me now for calling you tourists, it's for expediencies sake. In reality you will always be Citizen-space-flyer-explorernauts extraordinaire in my heart.

• MULTIMEDIA: Compete, Cooperate or Get Grounded!
• MULTIMEDIA: Space Tourism: An Overview
• Image Gallery:Anousheh Ansari Pre-launch Gallery

Rich Godwin is President of CG Publishing and Apogee Space Books and a Board Member of the National Space Society.

NOTE: The views of this article are the author's and do not reflect the policies of the National Space Society.

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