Is space tourism for human exploration or exploitation?

Iman Alrashid, Staff Writer

Have you ever thought of taking a vacation to outer space? 

For me, I have dreamed of going to outer space and dancing on the moon since I was a little girl. I didn’t think how much the trip would damage the Earth. Or how much money will cost—just a little girl dreaming of dancing on the moon. 

I support studying outer space. It might protect the earth from a catastrophic asteroid one day, and produce a lot of other medical and environmental benefits. But what I don’t support is exploiting outer space. 

Most humans are driven to explore the unknown and push the boundaries of our scientific and technical limits. Still, I think it went too far with SpaceX, Blue Origin, and other companies. 

They are spending billions of dollars and causing tremendous environmental damage to exploit outer space for their interest to gain more billions from colonizing Mars and exploit those who so badly wanted to visit outer space. 

SpaceX, Blue origin, and other companies are American space transportation services. They are racing to reduce space transportation costs so people can visit outer space and, in the future, colonize Mars. 

Do you know how much the trip to outer space will cost you? According to The New York Times, every passenger will cost $55 million for its seat on a SpaceX rocket. 

The billionaire Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, Jeff Bezos, the owner of Blue Origin, and others, are starting a giant leap for pollution. I believe they can do something about it, but they don’t care. They only care about making a legacy and becoming a trillionaire. 

We need to think of planet Earth first, not last. We need to protect the next generation’s future on earth.