People living in the UK may be interested in a debate taking place in London in December. ‘To Boldly Go…?’ looks at the state of the current debate about space travel. How did we get from space being the final frontier in the 1960’s to the situation today, where in the wake of the Columbia disaster manned space travel is deemed to risky? This debate is part of the Future Vision: Future Cities conference that takes place at the London School of Economics on Saturday 6th December 2003. More details can be found at http://www.transportresearch.org.uk/FutureCities.htm

To Boldly Go…?
After the Columbia disaster, has space travel had its day? In the 60s we dreamt of space colonies, or interstellar vacations, (and Electric Sheep). But back then - in an era of Mutually Assured Destruction – did this reflect something of a survivalist mentality? Were Gerard K O'Neill’s Island One, or even the terrestrial versions of Buckminster Fuller’s Spaceship Earth or Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti, positive aspirations?
Is space travel just another way to get away from it all? Is space the final frontier or just the preserve of rich tourists? Is space an irrelevance, an escape or an ambition? Is it a thing of the past? After all, what is space travel for?

Readings:
"Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of a World Beyond," Marina Benjamin, Chatto and Windus. 2003
"The Case for Mars," Robert Zubrin, Pocket Books. 1998
"The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky technology, culture and deviance at NASA," Diane Vaughan, University of Chicago Press, 1997
"Our Final Century: The 50/50 Threat to Humanity's Survival," Martin Rees FRS, Heinemann. 2003
"2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future," Gerard K O'Neill, Jonathan Cape, 1981
"The First Men in the Moon," H.G. Wells, Gollancz. (1895) 2001 edition
"High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space," Gerald K O'Neill (introduction by Freeman Dyson), Apogee Books. (1975) 2001 edition