Space tourism is a billionaire’s club
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Photo by spring mag.
How did we get here?
Space travel used to represent limitless possibilities. When I was a kid, one of the most common responses to “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was being an astronaut. Whereas now, unless that kid is also a billionaire that is unlikely to happen.
2021 saw an uptick in “space tourism”, with billionaires including Jeff Bezos, Elon musk, and Richard Branson carving the way in space tourism. Each of these tycoons is creating its own space tourism-based company, so what does that mean for the rest of us?
Up-and-Coming space tourism companies funded by billionaires include:
Space X - created by Elon Musk
Blue Origin - predominantly funded by Jeff Bezos
Virgin Galactic - Richard Branson
I think we can all agree here that space is a glittering star in a market of climate catastrophe and dull world events, something worth celebrating, whoever you are. But the emerging market of space tourism is a different beast altogether. As bad as air travel can be for the environment, space travel is much worse. And it’s one thing when it’s for a noble cause like expanding human knowledge, such as the work done by NASA and discovering new worlds. That’s enough of a worthy pursuit that it can be justified.
But space tourism is not that. It feels like glorified joyrides for the richest to partake in. Last year, Elon Musk said if the UN gave him a breakdown of how $6Bil could solve world hunger he would do it. Not enough to solve world hunger, but enough to prevent starvation from affecting 42 million people at risk of famine. So not quite the same thing, but still a big difference that could be made if he followed through with it. But he didn’t, and earlier this year he bought Twitter for $45Bil. There are so many more useful places that money could be going. The space race has become a different thing than it started.
drowning kid meme created by author.
Changing the meaning of space race
In just over 50 years the meaning of the space race has changed significantly.
Space Race in 1970: Unified efforts competing between countries for which nation would be the first to make it to space (the moon in particular).
Modern-day space race: Which billionaire will be the first to make it to space! Circa 2021, AKA the space tourism boom.
Space tourism has been described as glorified joyrides for society's richest. Since these trips into space are not substantial in their distance or time in the night sky. But I would argue that this is a whole lot of money, resources, and environmental impact happening for a joyride.
And when the funding for space tourism companies such as space x is so much more than NASA's annual budget, it paints a worrying picture for the future of space travel. It makes it harder for real change and advancements to occur in space travel when more barriers are being put up in favour of space tourism. My question is where is the place for qualified professionals and is it being filled by billionaires? How these barriers will affect the future of space travel
Space used to be a place of limitless opportunities, where everyone believed they could be an astronaut. Space travel was once a place of magic, where the possibilities were limitless. How will this boom in space tourism affect us 20 years down the line? Or a hundred?
I want a world where space remains a place full of possibilities. And not just a space occupied by the 1%. I worry about what that means for access within the realm of space travel if we continue down this line. Astronauts undergo vigorous training for a reason. And so making space into a place anyone can go to (if they can pay enough money) is a dangerous slope. Until we see how all this newfound “innovation” will play out, I will join the many Twitter users roasting the billionaire space race.
existentialism collage made by milo
Milo Ezra Kane - Milo is a writing student who longs for the cold embrace of the void. When they aren’t talking about space, they can be found playing dnd, embracing the absurd, and screaming into the void about the weight of capitalism.
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