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.
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.
Visit SPACE.com/Ad Astra Online for more news, views and scientific inquiry from the National Space Society.
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