Is space tourism ready to take off?

Two accidents last week threw a big question mark into the possibility of space tourism being popularized to any great extent in the near future.

A private unmanned rocket taking cargo to the International Space Station blew up Tuesday six seconds into its flight. And three days later, a test flight of Space-ShipTwo exploded over the Mojave Desert with two people aboard.

Of course, at the present time, more than 500 people reportedly have bought tickets with private conveyers into space at some hundreds of thousands of dollars or so each. Included are Justin Bieber and Ashton Kutcher, as if they didn’t have anything better to do. But under current conditions, the demands for such exploratory activity by the public seems to be minimal.

Someday, we’re sure, boarding spacecraft to travel into the beyond will be somewhat more popular. After all, it is an adventure for those who want to see for themselves what lies past our earthly borders. Who knows, someday going to Mars may be like taking a taxi ride into the other side of town. However, it will probably be a while before we get to that stage of universe exploration, if ever.

It will, of course, produce some answers to our questions about the extent of the universe. It may let us know if any other creatures prowl its perimeters that so far have not been detected.

Some beneficial information also should be gained from such exploration that will help us solve problems in our environment in learning how other planets are affected in nature. After all, it was when we first started exploring the Earth that we learned about our tides and other phenomena that affect our way of living.

Most of such information has been gained in the past by governmental explorations that have added to our general knowledge of how our universe operates. Interplanetary tourism will not play an important role in that respect.

So let’s not give up on the possibility of space travel becoming an item of everyday luxurious existence.

But let’s enjoy our current day tourism in Grand Isle, Mexico and Hawaii for the time being and let the governments of the world come down with the answers of how the universe operates and what travel opportunities could possibly make travel even more enjoyable in the future.