The first photograph taken from space inspired me to write this post.
I was recently thinking that it must have been sad for people living before the 20th century not to see pictures of space, planets, galaxies, etc. Today we are lucky that we can see them, among others, thanks to Hubble’s telescope’s stunning photos. Nevertheless, the fact is that the first photograph taken from space was made on 24 October 1946. It was possible to do it thanks to the German rocket V2. Americans captured it at the end of World War II. Luckily, they did not use the rocket to bomb other nations. They used it, among others, to take the first photograph taken from space. This photo provided me additional thoughts.
Will future generations not think about us that our lives must have been somewhat sad because space flights in our times are dedicated only to a narrow group of selected astronauts?
Very likely. I am convinced that commercial flights into space (thanks to such companies as SpaceX or institutions like NASA) will soon become a routine activity for space carriers. I dream of seeing the Earth from space, but I doubt if I manage to do that. For today, space flights are still reserved for astronauts, not for tourists. Moreover, I am sure that the first tourist space flights will not be affordable to the usual human. Dennis Tito visited the International Space Station for seven days in April–May 2001. Tito became the world’s first “fee-paying” space tourist. Tito paid $20 million for his space-trip.
The fact is that I can imagine in the future messages from the evening news that would talk about the problem of the trampled moon and that humanity will wonder how to save the moon from mass tourism. Nevertheless, I think that many years will have to elapse until space tourists trample the moon.
