Aylyffe is part of the National Space Society of North Texas. Her interest first started because of her parents who are space enthusiasts. She would like to see habitats built in earth orbit, and believes that there are ways to do this that would be very economical. She is excited to see us return to the moon. The exploration there will allow us to discover technology and resources that will help humanity here. And it is something that we should all be excited about.
Lisa Stewart is an elementary school teacher and an advocate for space exploration. She recommends that teachers and librarians sign up for the NASA Express Newsletter that connects teachers at all levels with resources, events, and other enrichment opportunities to put space into their students lives.
Lisa hopes that exploring space will help improve life here on earth. If we understood how small, finite, and precious Earth is, then it would motivate us to figure out how to take better care of it. This can come through the perspective of seeing Earth from space. There is a very thin atmosphere that protects us from space. Also, as we explore space, we will develop technology which could help us here.
Lisa highly recommends the Space Exploration Educators Conference which is held at Space Center Houston each February. If you are an educator, then you should go: https://spacecenter.org/educator-resources/teachers-seec/
Zymal would travel to space if she could. She is excited to learn that we are going back to the moon and that it will be a good thing to have the first woman on the moon. By exploring space, we will learn more about the earth. We can explore space and improve life here on earth. In fact, it may require space exploration to solve some of our problems.
It is amazing how long it has been since we went to the moon. The 1969 moon landing was 6 years before Diana was born. The last time someone walked on the moon was 1972. It was so long ago, it is not surprising that people question if it happened. It will be exciting to return. Stepping bold steps out into space, and seeing the world from a different perspective.
Diana used to have a True Crime podcast. Which inspired me to ask, “When do you think we will have the first murder in space?” Lots of people under high stress situation in close proximity will create difficult relationships. Perhaps it is significantly closer than we like. And there is a whole new set of forensics that needs to be developed to investigate crime in free fall, on the moon, and on Mars. It is an area that we may not like to think about, but could be an interesting intellectual exercise.
Diana would go to space if it were affordable and available. But what kind of ecological problems might sending hundreds of StarShips into space multiple times a day cause and how do we mitigate it? Much to think about.
Paul Bowen is a teacher at the Schilling School for Gifted Children. Paul and I had a wide ranging conversation. We started out with “we should focus on problems here at earth”, but as we explored those problems, we identified several drivers that could motivate other people to move to space. Intentional communities will find it challenging to maintain their identity and rules as communications technology and competition and pressure from other communities continue to put pressure on them to adapt to the mainstream. These communities might chose the hardships of space with the isolation and buffering that it provides in order to maintain their identity and their philosophy. Their way of life will have to change to adapt to the technology required to maintain life in uninhabitable places, but those challenges seem consistent with the apparent philosophy of those societies.
We also talked about conflict between US and China could result from the idea that China could be dealt with now. But that China is growing fast, and there will come a point in the future that it may not be possible to limit them. This conflict could escalate to be like no other with planet changing consequences. This may result in people that might prefer the seemingly manageable challenges that nature presents over the unpredictable challenges that fellow people represent going to space to be safe from potential world war.
The key sentence from our conversation was “It doesn’t have to be this way.” All the ills that we see in the world, all the short comings, all the sources of frustration and harm could be changed. We could chose to make the world a different way.
We can create a community of mutual respect, a world that is rational and supportive, and a world were we can focus on learning and advancement. The choice for that world is in our hands. But first we need to realize we have a choice.